Beliefs about low back pain in the Norwegian general population: are they related to pain experiences and health professionals?

STUDY

DESIGN

A baseline study of the general population and the health care providers in 3 Norwegian counties.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate if beliefs about low back pain (LBP) are related to personal experiences and profession sought for care.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Myths about LBP that are abandoned by health professionals are still alive in the public. Such myths represent pain avoidance beliefs and passive coping strategies that may hinder normal spontaneous recovery from an episode of LBP.

METHODS

A sample of 1502 randomly selected people was interviewed by telephone, and all the 1105 physicians, physiotherapists, and chiropractors in the area were sent a questionnaire in April 2002. All respondents gave their responses in terms of degree of agreement to 6 statements reflecting beliefs about LBP.

RESULTS

Personal back pain experiences were important for beliefs about LBP. People with a history of previous back pain had more faith in the 2 statements "Back pain recovers best by itself" (52.2%) and "In most cases back pain recovers by itself in a couple of weeks" (32.5%) than those with current pain (36.9% and 20.9%, respectively, P < 0.000). There were significant differences in beliefs between physicians and the chiropractors concerning the same 2 statements, and these differences were also reflected in the beliefs of patients treated by the different professional groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Belief in spontaneous recovery from LBP seems to be positively correlated to previous experience with LBP without current pain. Patients of the various health care providers seem to have a faith in spontaneous recovery similar to that of their health care provider. These differences may frustrate the public and patients who visit more than one provider, and hinder collaboration among professional groups.