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Patients with Low Back Pain in Malawi: Their Attitudes and Beliefs on Their Low Back Pain

Received: 25 July 2014    Accepted: 6 August 2014    Published: 20 August 2014
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Abstract

Low back pain (LBP) is a musculoskeletal disorder, affecting humans from adolescent to adult age. It is a health and socio-economic problem worldwide. The cause and contributing factors to LBP are multifactorial resulting in different approaches for its management. The attitudes and beliefs of patient with LBP, play an important role in the whole process of pain management. Negative attitudes and beliefs may lead to fear -avoidance behaviour, resulting into pain chronicity and disability. Thus, this study aimed to identify the attitudes and beliefs among patients with LBP, attending physiotherapy treatment in Malawi. Queen Elizabeth and Kamuzu Central hospitals were selected as study settings. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was done, using a self-administered questionnaire, employing a convenience sampling method. Twelve statements about attitudes and beliefs on LBP were adopted from the Back Beliefs Questionnaire (BBQ) and from the Survey of Pain Attitudes (SOPA). The SPSS (version 19.0) was used for data capturing and analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize data. The Chi-square test was used to determine any association between variables and the Alpha level of significance was set at 0.05. All ethical issues were sought and adhered to throughout the study period. The results showed that out of 205 participants, with mean age of 47.74 years, (SD=13.29), female constituted 53.2% of the sample. More than half (67%) of all participants portrayed negative attitudes and beliefs about their LBP. We concluded that, majority of patients with LBP in Malawi hold negative attitudes and beliefs about their pain. Therefore, patient health education is needed to change these attitudes and beliefs if recovery and treatment goal are to be achieved.

Published in Clinical Medicine Research (Volume 3, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16
Page(s) 112-118
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Low Back Pain, Attitudes, Beliefs

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Tarimo Nesto, Ina Diener. (2014). Patients with Low Back Pain in Malawi: Their Attitudes and Beliefs on Their Low Back Pain. Clinical Medicine Research, 3(4), 112-118. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16

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    ACS Style

    Tarimo Nesto; Ina Diener. Patients with Low Back Pain in Malawi: Their Attitudes and Beliefs on Their Low Back Pain. Clin. Med. Res. 2014, 3(4), 112-118. doi: 10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16

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    AMA Style

    Tarimo Nesto, Ina Diener. Patients with Low Back Pain in Malawi: Their Attitudes and Beliefs on Their Low Back Pain. Clin Med Res. 2014;3(4):112-118. doi: 10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16,
      author = {Tarimo Nesto and Ina Diener},
      title = {Patients with Low Back Pain in Malawi: Their Attitudes and Beliefs on Their Low Back Pain},
      journal = {Clinical Medicine Research},
      volume = {3},
      number = {4},
      pages = {112-118},
      doi = {10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cmr.20140304.16},
      abstract = {Low back pain (LBP) is a musculoskeletal disorder, affecting humans from adolescent to adult age. It is a health and socio-economic problem worldwide. The cause and contributing factors to LBP are multifactorial resulting in different approaches for its management. The attitudes and beliefs of patient with LBP, play an important role in the whole process of pain management. Negative attitudes and beliefs may lead to fear -avoidance behaviour, resulting into pain chronicity and disability. Thus, this study aimed to identify the attitudes and beliefs among patients with LBP, attending physiotherapy treatment in Malawi. Queen Elizabeth and Kamuzu Central hospitals were selected as study settings. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was done, using a self-administered questionnaire, employing a convenience sampling method. Twelve statements about attitudes and beliefs on LBP were adopted from the Back Beliefs Questionnaire (BBQ) and from the Survey of Pain Attitudes (SOPA). The SPSS (version 19.0) was used for data capturing and analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize data. The Chi-square test was used to determine any association between variables and the Alpha level of significance was set at 0.05. All ethical issues were sought and adhered to throughout the study period. The results showed that out of 205 participants, with mean age of 47.74 years, (SD=13.29), female constituted 53.2% of the sample. More than half (67%) of all participants portrayed negative attitudes and beliefs about their LBP. We concluded that, majority of patients with LBP in Malawi hold negative attitudes and beliefs about their pain. Therefore, patient health education is needed to change these attitudes and beliefs if recovery and treatment goal are to be achieved.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Patients with Low Back Pain in Malawi: Their Attitudes and Beliefs on Their Low Back Pain
    AU  - Tarimo Nesto
    AU  - Ina Diener
    Y1  - 2014/08/20
    PY  - 2014
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16
    DO  - 10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16
    T2  - Clinical Medicine Research
    JF  - Clinical Medicine Research
    JO  - Clinical Medicine Research
    SP  - 112
    EP  - 118
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2326-9057
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20140304.16
    AB  - Low back pain (LBP) is a musculoskeletal disorder, affecting humans from adolescent to adult age. It is a health and socio-economic problem worldwide. The cause and contributing factors to LBP are multifactorial resulting in different approaches for its management. The attitudes and beliefs of patient with LBP, play an important role in the whole process of pain management. Negative attitudes and beliefs may lead to fear -avoidance behaviour, resulting into pain chronicity and disability. Thus, this study aimed to identify the attitudes and beliefs among patients with LBP, attending physiotherapy treatment in Malawi. Queen Elizabeth and Kamuzu Central hospitals were selected as study settings. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was done, using a self-administered questionnaire, employing a convenience sampling method. Twelve statements about attitudes and beliefs on LBP were adopted from the Back Beliefs Questionnaire (BBQ) and from the Survey of Pain Attitudes (SOPA). The SPSS (version 19.0) was used for data capturing and analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize data. The Chi-square test was used to determine any association between variables and the Alpha level of significance was set at 0.05. All ethical issues were sought and adhered to throughout the study period. The results showed that out of 205 participants, with mean age of 47.74 years, (SD=13.29), female constituted 53.2% of the sample. More than half (67%) of all participants portrayed negative attitudes and beliefs about their LBP. We concluded that, majority of patients with LBP in Malawi hold negative attitudes and beliefs about their pain. Therefore, patient health education is needed to change these attitudes and beliefs if recovery and treatment goal are to be achieved.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Rehabilitation Technicians School, Malawi Against Physical Disabilities P.O. Box 256, Blantyre, Malawi

  • University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Cape Town, South Africa

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