A FOCAL GROUP STUDY OF PATIENT’S EXPERIENCES, PERCEPTIONS AND OPINIONS ABOUT NON-HEALTHY BEHAVIORS RESULTING IN LOW BACK PAIN

Patients with chronic low back pain hold various perceptions, experiences and beliefs about their pain which are based on prior learning and social influence. This study was employed to earn perceptions and beliefs of patients regarding low back pain to apply in health education planning. Eight focus group discussions including 6-10 people taking part in each of them was performed. Subjects included volunteers who recruited from Rheumatology Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Science and met the criteria including: women, 18 years of age or older, having a lumbar spine disease caused by degenerative disease diagnosed by physician, having a chronic condition existing beyond 90 days and not having experience of surgical operation in last two years. Participants were interviewed regarding two themes: experiences of subjects about non-healthy behaviors resulted in low back pain and the causes of doing these non-healthy behaviors. The results showed that the most common non healthy behavior was hard manual work with improper posture. About 50% of participants stated they had performed hard manual work because they hadn’t any knowledge about the effects and consequences of this type of working. The rest of participants mentioned other factors such as lack of belief, positive attitude, skills and social support. This study proposes that factors such as attitude, perceptions and beliefs of patients should be considered in health education planning.