Abstract
ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe patient experiences of received primary care for low back pain (LBP) according to the BetterBack Model of Care (MoC) with a focus on illness beliefs and self-management enablement. Methods: Individual interviews were conducted with 15 adults 4–14 months after receiving treatment according to the BetterBack MoC for LBP in primary care in Sweden. Data were analysed using content analysis. Results: When analysing the data, the following theme emerged; “Participant understanding of their treatment for low back pain and self-management strategies—a matter of support systems”, comprising the following categories: “Knowledge translation”, “Interaction and dialogue”, “The health care professional support” and “Form organization”. Participants experienced that they had better knowledge about their LBP and received tools to better manage their health condition. The participants expressed good communication with the treating physiotherapist and provided suggestions to further improve the treatment of LBP. Conclusions: Participants experienced that they had gained new knowledge about their health problems and after the treatment they had the tools to handle their back problems. This suggests that the BetterBack MoC may be used as a basis for a support system to provide valuable tools for self-management for patients with low back pain.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) is a large public health problem and the major cause of disability worldwide (GBD Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators, 2017)
500 patients with LBP were recruited from all 15 primary care physiotherapy clinics in the Östergötland public health care region and 278 of these patients were randomized to treat ment according to the BetterBack Model of Care (MoC) (Abbott et al, 2018)
Participants generally experienced that they had gained new knowledge about LBP, and had acquired tools to handle their back problems, which is in line with the desired effects of the BetterBack MoC
Summary
Low back pain (LBP) is a large public health problem and the major cause of disability worldwide (GBD Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators, 2017). In Sweden and many other countries, most patients with LBP are treated in pri mary care. Many patients improve within a short per iod but a significant proportion report recurrences or continuous pain even after several years (Enthoven et al, 2004; Oberg et al, 2003). Self-management can be defined as “the tasks that individuals must undertake to live with one or more chronic conditions”. These tasks include having the confi dence to deal with medical management, role man agement, and emotional management of their conditions (Adams et al, 2004)
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