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Patients, physiotherapists reported similar opinions on triggers of low back pain
In a recently published cross-sectional survey, researchers found patients and physiotherapists tended to have similar views as to what risk factors affect low back pain. Both agreed lifting was the most important trigger for low back pain.
Researchers included 102 physiotherapists and 999 patients with a sudden, acute episodes of low back pain (LBP) in the study. Both physiotherapists and patients were surveyed about what they believed triggered an LBP episode, and responses were coded into risk factors categories and subcategories by two independent researchers.
Both patients (87.7%) and physiotherapists (89.4%) endorsed biomechanical risk factors as the most important risk factor category. Patients (22.5%) and physiotherapists (25.1%) endorsed lifting as the most important trigger for LBP. The groups also agreed that lifting, bending and prolonged sitting were three of the top five triggers for LBP, researchers noted.
“Despite the statistically significant difference between patient and physiotherapist endorsement of some risk factor categories, the overall responses were remarkably similar. Both patients and physiotherapists endorse lifting as the most important trigger for LBP and agreed on three of the top five (lifting, bending and prolonged sitting). Psychological and psychosocial triggers are rarely endorsed by either patients or physiotherapists,” researchers wrote in the study. – by Robert Linnehan
Disclosure: Researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.