Reassurance during low back pain consultations with GPs: a qualitative study
Reassurance during low back pain consultations with GPs: a qualitative study
Background:Reassurance is commonly recommended in guidelines for the management of low back pain in primary care, although it is poorly defined, and what it means to patients remains unknown.Aim:To explore low back pain patients’ perceptions of practitioners’ reassuring behaviours during consultations.Design and Setting:Twenty-three Patients who had recently consulted for non-specific low back pain were recruited from General Practice (GP).Method:Semi-structured interviews explored what patients had found reassuring during their consultations and the effect of such reassurance since their consultations. Transcripts were analysed using the Framework Method. The thematic framework was developed between two researchers, with consensus achieved through discussion.Results:Patients each brought experiences, beliefs, expectations and concerns to their consultations, which they wanted the doctor to hear and understand. Patients were reassured implicitly when it seemed that the doctor was taking them seriously and wanted to help, as well as through relationship-building and feeling that the doctor was readily available to them. However it was only explicit, informational reassurance which directly addressed patients’ concerns by providing explanations which ruled out serious disease, and helped them to understand and cope with their pain.Conclusion:The themes of implicit and explicit reassurance uncovered here correspond with ideas of affective and cognitive reassurance, respectively. While the findings support the use of information and education to alleviate concerns, the role of implicit reassurance through relationship building and empathy remains less clear. The impact of these behaviours on outcomes should form a priority for future research.
low back pain, primary care, reassurance
692-701
Holt, Nicola
8a89923e-93a8-426c-bdcd-107691549b48
Pincus, Tamar
55388347-5d71-4fc0-9fd2-66fbba080e0c
Vogel, Steven
a9e25ead-dcfd-40ae-9756-b3c68c7252fc
1 October 2015
Holt, Nicola
8a89923e-93a8-426c-bdcd-107691549b48
Pincus, Tamar
55388347-5d71-4fc0-9fd2-66fbba080e0c
Vogel, Steven
a9e25ead-dcfd-40ae-9756-b3c68c7252fc
Holt, Nicola, Pincus, Tamar and Vogel, Steven
(2015)
Reassurance during low back pain consultations with GPs: a qualitative study.
British Journal of General Practice, 65 (639), , [e692-e701].
(doi:10.3399/bjgp15X686953).
Abstract
Background:Reassurance is commonly recommended in guidelines for the management of low back pain in primary care, although it is poorly defined, and what it means to patients remains unknown.Aim:To explore low back pain patients’ perceptions of practitioners’ reassuring behaviours during consultations.Design and Setting:Twenty-three Patients who had recently consulted for non-specific low back pain were recruited from General Practice (GP).Method:Semi-structured interviews explored what patients had found reassuring during their consultations and the effect of such reassurance since their consultations. Transcripts were analysed using the Framework Method. The thematic framework was developed between two researchers, with consensus achieved through discussion.Results:Patients each brought experiences, beliefs, expectations and concerns to their consultations, which they wanted the doctor to hear and understand. Patients were reassured implicitly when it seemed that the doctor was taking them seriously and wanted to help, as well as through relationship-building and feeling that the doctor was readily available to them. However it was only explicit, informational reassurance which directly addressed patients’ concerns by providing explanations which ruled out serious disease, and helped them to understand and cope with their pain.Conclusion:The themes of implicit and explicit reassurance uncovered here correspond with ideas of affective and cognitive reassurance, respectively. While the findings support the use of information and education to alleviate concerns, the role of implicit reassurance through relationship building and empathy remains less clear. The impact of these behaviours on outcomes should form a priority for future research.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: 1 October 2015
Additional Information:
Funding
Nicola Holt is supported by a studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council’s Doctoral Training Centre.
Ethical approval
This study was approved by the Greater Manchester West Proportionate Review NHS Research Ethics Committee (ref: 13/nw/0107) and by the Psychology Department, Royal Holloway, University of London’s ethics board.
Keywords:
low back pain, primary care, reassurance
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 468046
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468046
ISSN: 0960-1643
PURE UUID: cafa6784-4ec1-4944-be65-536818fdd74a
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 28 Jul 2022 18:48
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:11
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Nicola Holt
Author:
Tamar Pincus
Author:
Steven Vogel
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics