Abstract
BackgroundLow back pain is the greatest contributor to the global burden of disease and can result in work disability. Previous literature has examined the influence of personal factors, the healthcare system, workplace, and income support systems on work disability due to low back pain. Income support systems may also influence healthcare and the workplace, leading to an impact on healthcare quality and functional capacity. However, there has been little insight as to how or in what contexts this influence occurs. This realist review aims to provide an explanation of how and in what contexts income support systems impact the healthcare quality and functional capacity of people who are unable to work due to low back pain.MethodsRealist reviews are a type of literature review that seek to determine how and in what contexts a social programme such as income support leads to an outcome, rather than simply determining whether or not it works. Five initial theories about how income support systems impact healthcare quality and functional capacity are posited in this protocol. An iterative search of electronic databases for academic literature will be used to acquire and synthesise evidence that may support or refute these initial theories. Grey literature such as policy documents will be identified to characterise income support and healthcare systems and supplement contextual details. Semi-structured interviews with income support, healthcare, and low back pain experts will also be performed to complement literature searching with anecdotal and experiential evidence. At the conclusion of the review, initial theories will be supported or refuted and refined into programme theories that will be explained by evidence in context-mechanism-outcome configurations.DiscussionIncome support and healthcare systems are highly complex and fluid programmes. At the intersection between these systems are those with low back pain. By using realist review methods, we will provide explanatory rather than judgemental findings. The resulting multi-dimensional and contextual understanding of the impact of income support systems on important low back pain outcomes will provide valuable insight for future income support and healthcare policy development.
Highlights
Low back pain is the greatest contributor to the global burden of disease and can result in work disability
Non-specific low back pain (NSLBP) is the greatest contributor to the global burden of disease, responsible for approximately 60 million years lived with disability (YLDs) [4, 5]
We argue that the influence of income support systems on quality of healthcare and functional capacity outcomes in those with NSLBP can only be adequately explained by addressing the following research questions: 1. How and in what contexts do income support systems impact healthcare quality for people who are unable to work due to NSLBP?
Summary
Theory development In the first step to addressing these research questions, we conducted initial purposive searching, held several collective author discussions, and consulted experts to develop initial theories that we could test in this review. We will perform data extraction with the following questions in mind: “how and in what contexts do income support systems impact the quality of healthcare and functional capacity of people who are unable to work due to NSLBP?”, “what are the mechanisms that generate quality of care or functional outcomes?”, “what contextual factors influence these mechanisms?”, and “who experiences these mechanisms, contexts, and outcomes?” These questions will guide what data are extracted from the included literature. Data analysis and synthesis We will perform data synthesis in group discussions with all authors following each round of literature searching, data extraction, and semi-structured interviews This step will involve situating mechanisms in different contexts, adjudicating evidence based on relevance and rigour, juxtaposing between evidence that presents contrasting outcome patterns, reconciling differences to explain inconsistent outcomes, and consolidating evidence to create CMO configurations that will support or refute our initial theories and underpin the explanations of our refined theories [38, 49]. We have completed the PRISMA-P checklist for this protocol [64]
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