Poster presentation. Abstract:
Background: Affecting a large number of people worldwide and causing a large socio-economic burden, chronic back pain is a major public health concern. The importance of patient information in chronic back pain is well-known and has taken a new dimension with the development of Internet. Few studies have investigated patient’s use of Internet for chronic back pain information with qualitative or mixed methods. We aim to study chronic back pain patients’ experiences, needs and use of Internet for health information. How health professionals perceive these practices and how Internet affects patient-carer relationship will also be explored.
Methods: Mixed methods will be adopted. 30 semi-structured interviews will be conducted with chronic back pain patients. 4 focus-groups will be carried out with 30 health professionals managing chronic pain. Thematic and lexicometric analysis will be achieved on the qualitative data. A questionnaire based on the qualitative findings will be administrated to 1’000 chronic back pain patients. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance will be performed.
Expected results: To obtain a description of Internet use among chronic back pain patients and in-depth information on their experiences and needs regarding online health information. The impact of Internet use on patient-carer relationship will be revealed.
Current stage of work: Literature review is completed.
Discussion: A better understanding of Internet use among people suffering from chronic back pain could lead to care tailored to their specific needs in the digital era. The results could provide guidelines for the development of websites dedicated to chronic back pain.