News
Health Literacy Make Be Key to Managing Chronic Low Back Pain
Can you find, understand and use health information about a problem which is important to you?
If yes, that is what the experts call “health literacy.” However, how literate a patient can be depends on what knowledge is available. Patients with heart disease can influence the progress of their disease by taking steps proven to slow the progress of the disease, for instance.
Patients who experience chronic lower back pain may benefit, says a new study, through becoming health literate. The causes of chronic lower back pain can be hard to find and hard to treat. Becoming informed about this condition, says a new study, is associated with lower levels of disability.
If you suffer from this problem, be careful about the information sources you use. Make sure that what you read is from trustworthy sources, such as the NIH, academic medical centers or specialty societies who treat the problem.
People with chronic lower back pain can be almost desperate, ready to try anything anyone suggests.
From personal experience, I can say that my Pilates teacher patiently helped me rebuild my back. I never even think about my back any more. I put on heels and don’t pause…will these make me sorry later? No.
People whose lower backs bother them have to search for what offers relief. Friends of mine swear by acupuncture. Altogether, all of us have eliminated or reduced to the mild levels, the kind of chronic lower back pain this story is about.
There is hope for many people to reduce the effect of this problem on their lives. Start with information, says this study.
NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
“If you have lower back pain, you are not alone. Nearly everyone at some point has back pain that interferes with work, routine daily activities, or recreation. Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on low back pain, the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work. Back pain is the second most common neurological ailment in the United States — only headache is more common. Fortunately, most occurrences of low back pain go away within a few days. Others take much longer to resolve or lead to more serious conditions.
“Acute or short-term low back pain generally lasts from a few days to a few weeks. Acute or short-term low back pain generally lasts from a few days to a few weeks. Most acute back pain is mechanical in nature — the result of trauma to the lower back or a disorder such as arthritis. Pain from trauma may be caused by a sports injury, work around the house or in the garden, or a sudden jolt such as a car accident or other stress on spinal bones and tissues. Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain, limited flexibility and/or range of motion, or an inability to stand straight. Occasionally, pain felt in one part of the body may “radiate” from a disorder or injury elsewhere in the body. Some acute pain syndromes can become more serious if left untreated. Pain from trauma may be caused by a sports injury, work around the house or in the garden, or a sudden jolt such as a car accident or other stress on spinal bones and tissues. Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain, limited flexibility and/or range of motion, or an inability to stand straight. Occasionally, pain felt in one part of the body may “radiate” from a disorder or injury elsewhere in the body. Some acute pain syndromes can become more serious if left untreated.
“Chronic back pain is measured by duration — pain that persists for more than 3 months is considered chronic. It is often progressive and the cause can be difficult to determine.
“The attitudes, beliefs and health literacy of people with chronic low back pain influence how they manage their pain, Australian researchers report.
“Health literacy is the ability to find, understand and use health information. Low levels of health literacy are associated with poor outcomes in many chronic conditions, but this relationship has not been studied previously in people with low back pain (LBP), according to background information about the study, which appears in the August issue of the journal Pain.”
“Although we know a fair amount about the reasons for persistent pain and disability among individuals who experience lower back pain, interventions which aim to modify these factors deliver only modest changes in outcomes. This suggests that we may be overlooking an important factor which influences treatment outcomes — and that is health literacy,” lead investigator Dr. Andrew Briggs, of the School of Physiotherapy and Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute at the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, said in a journal news release.”
…”Therefore, it is plausible that health literacy and LBP beliefs are related and that health literacy may be an important driver of LBP-related disability,” Briggs said.
Source: Business Week/Health Day News, July 7, 2010
Source: Pain, Press release, July 7, 2010
Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Back Pain Information
