OBJECTIVES While health literacy has been widely considered key to patient empowerment, an alternative approach separates both concepts and distinguishes between different types of patients according to their levels of health literacy and empowerment. These types are deemed to vary in their health-related actions and outcomes. In this study, we examine the relationship between health literacy a...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to establish if people with chronic low back pain (CLBP) demonstrate impairments in the ability to localize sensory information delivered to the back more than pain-free controls and determine whether any sensory abnormalities are related to pain-related variables. METHODS Vision was occluded and participants were stimulated using light touch or pinpri...

The management of chronic low back pain (CLBP) has proven very challenging in North America, as evidenced by its mounting socioeconomic burden. Choosing among available nonsurgical therapies can be overwhelming for many stakeholders, including patients, health providers, policy makers, and third-party payers. Although all parties share a common goal and wish to use limited health-care resources...

BACKGROUND Despite the large volume of research dedicated to understanding chronic low back pain (CLBP), patient outcomes remain modest while healthcare costs continue to rise, creating a major public health burden. Health literacy - the ability to seek, understand and utilise health information - has been identified as an important factor in the course of other chronic conditions and may be im...

Objectives. In some chronic conditions, patient-specific tools with individualized items have proved to be more sensitive outcome instruments than fixed-item tools; their use has not yet been investigated in chronic low back pain (cLBP). Methods. Eleven males and 21 females [mean age 44.0 (12.3) years] with cLBP, undergoing a spine-stabilization physiotherapy programme, completed the Roland Mor...

STUDY DESIGN A randomized, controlled, single-center pilot study. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of running a trial to explore if early intervention in individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP) would lead to an early return to work (RTW) and reduce sick leave during 12 months of follow-up compared with patients on a 3-month waiting list. SUMMARY OF BA...

OBJECTIVE To investigate depressive symptoms and their related factors in patients with chronic low back pain in Korea. METHOD A cross-sectional study using data from the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV) 2009 was undertaken. The sample consisted of 1,426 participants with chronic low back pain. Multifactorial regression analysis was used to identify t...

Results following fusion for chronic low back pain (CLBP) are unpredictable and generally not very satisfying. The major reason is the absence of a detailed description of the symptoms of patients with pain, if present, in a motion segment of the spine. Various radiological findings have been attributed to discogenic pain, but if these radiological signs were really true signs of such pain, fus...

Pain catastrophizing, a pattern of negative cognitive-emotional responses to actual or anticipated pain, maintains chronic pain and undermines response to treatments. Currently, precisely how pain catastrophizing influences pain processing is not well understood. In experimental settings, pain catastrophizing has been associated with amplified pain processing. This study sought to clarify pain ...

BACKGROUND Pilates exercise is recommended for people with chronic low back pain (CLBP). In the literature, however, Pilates exercise is described and applied differently to treat people with CLBP. These differences in the definition and application of Pilates exercise make it difficult to evaluate its effectiveness. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to establish consensus regarding the def...