Evaluation of a Canadian back pain mass media campaign.

Study Design: Quasi-experimental before-and-after design with control group.

Objective: We evaluated a back pain mass media campaign's impact on population back pain beliefs, work disability, and health utilization outcomes.

Summary Of Background Data: Building on previous campaigns in Australia and Scotland, a back pain mass media campaign (Don't Take it Lying Down) was implemented in Alberta, Canada.

A consensus approach toward the standardization of back pain definitions for use in prevalence studies.

Study Design: A modified Delphi study conducted with 28 experts in back pain research from 12 countries.

Objective: To identify standardized definitions of low back pain that could be consistently used by investigators in prevalence studies to provide comparable data.

Summary Of Background Data: Differences in the definition of back pain prevalence in population studies lead to heterogeneity in study findings, and limitations or impossibilities in comparing or summarizing prevalence figures from different studies.

Interpreting change scores for pain and functional status in low back pain: towards international consensus regarding minimal important change.

Study Design: Literature review, expert panel, and a workshop during the "VIII International Forum on Primary Care Research on Low Back Pain" (Amsterdam, June 2006).

Objective: To develop practical guidance regarding the minimal important change (MIC) on frequently used measures of pain and functional status for low back pain.

Summary Of Background Data: Empirical studies have tried to determine meaningful changes for back pain, using different methodologies.

Work and common health problems.

This paper reviews the evidence on the relationship between work and health. It concludes that, overall, the beneficial effects of work outweigh the risks of work, and are greater than the harmful effects of long-term worklessness. That contrasts with increasing trends of sickness absence, long-term incapacity and ill-health retirement attributed to common health problems.

Working Backs Scotland: a public and professional health education campaign for back pain.

Study Design: Public and professional health education campaign.

Objective: To change public beliefs about the management of back pain.

Summary Of Background Data: Within the past decade, there has been a reversal in the strategy of management of back pain, from rest to staying active.

Surgical interventions for lumbar disc prolapse: updated Cochrane Review.

Study Design: An updated Cochrane Review.

Objectives: To assess the effects of surgical interventions for the treatment of lumbar disc prolapse.

Summary Of Background Data: Disc prolapse accounts for 5% of low back disorders yet is one of the most common reasons for surgery.

Do community pharmacists have the attitudes and knowledge to support evidence based self-management of low back pain?

Background: In many countries, community pharmacists can be consulted without appointment in a large number of convenient locations. They are in an ideal position to give advice to patients at the onset of low back pain and also reinforce advice given by other healthcare professionals. There is little specific information about the quality of care provided in the pharmacy for people with back pain.

Preventing incapacity in people with musculoskeletal disorders.

Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most common causes of sickness absence, long-term incapacity for work and ill-health retirement. The number of Incapacity Benefit (IB) recipients in the United Kingdom has trebled since 1979, despite improvement in objective measures of health. Most of the trend is in non-specific conditions (largely subjective complaints, often with little objective pathology or impairment).

A population-based survey of back pain beliefs in Canada.

Study Design: Population-based survey.

Objectives: To assess the back pain beliefs in 2 provinces in Canada to inform a population-based educational campaign.

Summary Of Background Data: Beliefs, attitudes, and recovery expectations appear to influence recovery from back pain, yet prevailing public opinions about the condition have been little studied.

Surgery for degenerative lumbar spondylosis: updated Cochrane Review.

Study Design: An updated Cochrane review.

Objective: To review current scientific evidence on the effectiveness of surgical interventions for degenerative lumbar spondylosis.

Summary Of Background Data: There is still limited scientific evidence on spinal surgery.

Concepts of rehabilitation for the management of low back pain.

This chapter develops rehabilitation principles for the clinical and occupational management of non-specific low back pain (LBP). Rehabilitation has traditionally been a secondary intervention, which focused on permanent impairment, but this is inappropriate for LBP. Most patients with LBP do not have any irremediable impairment and long-term incapacity is not inevitable: given the right care, support and opportunity, most should be able to return to work.

Rehabilitation following first-time lumbar disc surgery: a systematic review within the framework of the cochrane collaboration.

Study Design: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Although several rehabilitation programs, physical fitness programs, or protocols regarding instruction for patients to return to work after lumbar disc surgery have been suggested, little is known about the efficacy of these treatments, and there are still persistent fears of causing reinjury, reherniation, or instability.

Objectives: The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of active treatments that are used in the rehabilitation after first-time lumbar disc surgery.

Public perceptions about low back pain and its management: a gap between expectations and reality?

OBJECTIVE: To compare public perceptions and patient perceptions about back pain and its management with current clinical guidelines. DESIGN: A survey using a quota sampling technique. SETTING: On-the-street in South Derbyshire in the UK.

A Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) and the role of fear-avoidance beliefs in chronic low back pain and disability.

Pilot studies and a literature review suggested that fear-avoidance beliefs about physical activity and work might form specific cognitions intervening between low back pain and disability. A Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) was developed, based on theories of fear and avoidance behaviour and focussed specifically on patients' beliefs about how physical activity and work affected their low back pain. Test-retest reproducibility in 26 patients was high.

A comparison of cognitive measures in low back pain: statistical structure and clinical validity at initial assessment.

Four cognitive measures--MHLC, PLC, CSQ and PRSS/PRCS--were directly compared in 120 U.K. patients with chronic low back pain.

Clinical assessment and interpretation of abnormal illness behaviour in low back pain.

Patients with chronic low back pain present with a mixture of symptoms and signs. Some are a direct consequence of physical pathology whereas others are attributable to associated and appropriate psychological and behavioural changes. At times the latter may be out of keeping with the degree of physical pathology and thus have specific significance in terms of the affective and cognitive disturbances that are also present and which may be the basis for abnormal illness behaviour.

Psychometric construction and validity of the Pilowsky Illness Behaviour Questionnaire in British patients with chronic low back pain.

The psychometric construction and validity of the 62-item Illness Behaviour Questionnaire has been examined in a study of 200 British patients suffering from chronic low back pain. 25 of the 62 items were unsatisfactory. Three new scales (AHD, LD and SI) represented a statistical improvement on the original scales, but were of little additional value to established measures in the analysis of reported pain or disability.