Patient’s Knowledge, Perception and Belief about the Reasons of Low Back Pain

Abstract

Patients with chronic low back pain (LBP) hold various knowledge, perceptions and beliefs about their pain which are based on prior learning and social conditions. Since LBP is a bio- psycho-social phenomenon and there are not any reports about awareness and attitude of Iranian patients’ views regarding it, this descriptive study was employed to earn this information P to apply its results in health education planning. For data gathering, deeply interviewing with 24 patients were performed. Volunteer patients were from Rheumatology Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Science from July 1st to Sep 1st 2003 who had inclusive criteria such as: 18 years old or more, suffering from LBP more than 90 d and not having experience of surgical operation in last two years. Interviews were individually held at rheumatic disease center which was convenient to the participants and were being continued to earn data saturation regarding patient’s knowledge, perception and belief about LBP. The findings showed that the most popular risky behavior for LBP was hard manual activities, also this study revealed that knowledge of the patients about LBP and its risk factors was little and LBP was not understood by the majority of patients (74%).Only a few people (11%) believed risk factors and risky behaviors could deteriorate it. From this study it can be concluded that health educators should emphasize on perception and attitude of the patients regarding LBP for changing behavior and complying of recommended body mechanics.