title: Evaluation of individualized quality of life and illness perceptions in low back pain. A patient education cluster randomized controlled trial.
abstract: To evaluate the effect of a cognitive patient education intervention compared with usual care on secondary outcomes of individual quality of life and psychological outcomes of illness perceptions and pain catastrophizing in patients with low back pain.
  
  
  
  A pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial in which 16 general practitioners (GPs) and 20 physiotherapists (PTs) in primary care were randomly assigned to provide either a cognitive patient education intervention or usual treatment. Patients were followed up at 4 weeks and 12 months after treatment. Linear mixed models were used with group, time, type of clinician and interaction effects of group*time as fixed effects.
  
  
  
  A total of 203 patients provided data at baseline, 86% responded at 4 weeks and 74% at 12 months. For all the outcome measures there was a statistically significant effect of time (p<0.001) and type of clinician (p<0.05) during the follow-up year. There was a significant interaction effect of group×time on illness perceptions (p=0.003), however not for the other outcome measures.
  
  
  
  The cognitive patient education intervention initiated a faster improvement in illness perceptions but not in the other outcomes.
  
  
  
  A patient education intervention can be beneficial to improve illness perceptions, however more research is needed.
authors.affiliation: Communication and Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Disorders (FORMI), Oslo University Hospital, Ullevaal, Oslo, Norway; University of Oslo, Department of Clinical Medicine, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: ida.lochting@ous-hf.no.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Løchting
authors.affiliation: Communication and Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Disorders (FORMI), Oslo University Hospital, Ullevaal, Oslo, Norway; University of Oslo, Department of Health Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Storheim
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Department of General Practice, Oslo, Norway; Research Unit for General Practice, Uni Research, Health, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Communication and Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Disorders (FORMI), Oslo University Hospital, Ullevaal, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Småstuen Cvancarova
authors.affiliation: Communication and Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Disorders (FORMI), Oslo University Hospital, Ullevaal, Oslo, Norway; Oslo University College, Faculty of Health Science, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grotle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D058443:Catastrophization / Q000523:psychology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010465:Perception; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Cognitive patient education; Illness perception; Individual quality of life; Patient generated index