Health care professionals’ and patients’ attitudes towards the special nature of low back pain: is there a difference?

The aim of the study was to identify what are the attitudes towards the special nature of low back pain (LBP) among health care professionals (HCP) and LBP patients and if there is a difference between. Surveys from 145 LBP patients and 65 HCP were obtained during the cross-sectional study. Questions included demographics, professional data, personal history of back pain, the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Back Pain Attitudes Questionnaire (Back-PAQ). Items 19; 20; 23; 24 from Back-PAQ regarding special nature of LBP were analysed. Statistical data was processed by IBM SPSS 26. Majority of HCP (90.7%; N=59) considered that it is necessary to know exact including morphological diagnosis to treat LBP effectively. Accordingly 86.9% (N=126) of LBP patients agreed with that. Vast majority of HCP (92.3%; N=60) considered it is important to visit physician in any case of LBP (in group of LBP patients as follows – 91.1% (N=132)). Most of HCP (69.2%%; N=45) considered that it is difficult to understand what LBP is like if you never had experienced it (in group of LBP patients as follows – 70.4% (N=102)). 41.6% (N=27) of HCP considered that it is worse to have pain in your back than your arms or legs (in group of LBP patients as follows – 59% (N=86)). No statistically significant difference was found between groups of HCP and LBP patients regarding any of items described above (p>0.05). Majority of HCP and LBP patients consider that LBP has its special nature and are more important and complex than pain in other locations. The study reveals that HCP have similar attitudes towards the special nature of LBP as patients. This implies that both HCP and LBP patients are not educated enough and have poor knowledge about non-specific LBP.