Abstract
BackgroundThe aim of this study is to explore perceptions of people with chronic neck or low back pain about how characteristics of home exercise programs and care-provider style during clinical encounters may affect adherence to exercises.MethodsThis is a qualitative study consisting of seven focus groups, with a total of 34 participants presenting chronic neck or low back pain. The subjects were included if they were receiving physiotherapy treatment and were prescribed home-based exercises.ResultsTwo themes emerged: home-based exercise programme conditions and care provider's style. In the first theme, the participants described their positive and negative experiences regarding time consumption, complexity and effects of prescribed exercises. In the second theme, participants perceived more bonding to prescribed exercises when their care provider presented knowledge about the disease, promoted feedback and motivation during exercise instruction, gave them reminders to exercise, or monitored their results and adherence to exercises.ConclusionsOur experiential findings indicate that patient's adherence to home-based exercise is more likely to happen when care providers' style and the content of exercise programme are positively experienced. These findings provide additional information to health care providers, by showing which issues should be considered when delivering health care to patients presenting chronic neck or back pain.
Highlights
The aim of this study is to explore perceptions of people with chronic neck or low back pain about how characteristics of home exercise programs and care-provider style during clinical encounters may affect adherence to exercises
Our study is consistent with this statement, and evidences that participants presenting chronic neck or back pain decline more to adhere to prescribed home exercises when the home programme requires longer time for execution or includes exercises which are difficult to perform
We considered that the efficacy of the information provided depends on whether or not it connects with the patients' beliefs and expectations
Summary
The aim of this study is to explore perceptions of people with chronic neck or low back pain about how characteristics of home exercise programs and care-provider style during clinical encounters may affect adherence to exercises. Neck and low back pain are prevalent and they are the major cause of work disability, being responsible for high costs to society [1,2]. Recurrence of neck and low back pain are common and their course is variable [3,4,5], with 10-15% of cases leading to chronic pain [6,7]. Exercise therapy commonly forms part of the treatment prescribed by care providers to patients presenting low back or neck pain. Exercises are often instructed individually and prescribed to be performed at home [12]. Home-based exercises vary greatly in the method of delivery and content [7,13,14], different pro-
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