title: Patient education for low back pain in general practice.
abstract: This comparative study of patient and general practitioner perceptions of patient education for low back pain (LBP) revealed significant differences in perspective. It suggests that although some general practitioners recognise the importance of patient education, they blame patients for its assumed failure as a management strategy. The patients in this study identified a range of reasons which explain their difficulties in following prevention advice which relate to not only limitations in themselves, but also to broader contextual factors over which they have little control. It is argued that both the inadequacy of current professional assumptions and the contextual factors that influence patients' prevention behaviours need to be acknowledged as a first step towards improving patient education for LBP in general practice.
authors.affiliation: School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Skelton
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: O'Dowd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires