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The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study

INTRODUCTION: Low back pain (LBP) is a major public health concern, affecting individuals of all age groups across the world. In about 90% of LBP cases, there is no specific cause identified and is, therefore, referred to as non-specific LBP. Due to the non-specific nature of LBP, investigations suc...

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Autores principales: Kahere, Morris, Ginindza, Themba
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7467525/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32873683
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039554
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author Kahere, Morris
Ginindza, Themba
author_facet Kahere, Morris
Ginindza, Themba
author_sort Kahere, Morris
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Low back pain (LBP) is a major public health concern, affecting individuals of all age groups across the world. In about 90% of LBP cases, there is no specific cause identified and is, therefore, referred to as non-specific LBP. Due to the non-specific nature of LBP, investigations such as radiological and laboratory investigations are unnecessary and results to delayed diagnosis and improper treatment culminating in LBP progressing into chronic LBP (CLBP). LBP is now the leading cause of disability with a significant socioeconomic burden. Despite all these challenges, CLBP is regarded as a trivial condition in low-and-middle-income countries and remains poorly investigated. The distribution of CLBP in Africa is unclear. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The research will be conducted in two phases. The initial phase will be an observational, cross-sectional hospital-based study that will be recruiting 650 participants, to determine the prevalence and risk factors of CLBP. A standardised questionnaire will be used to collect baseline data on the socio-demographic characteristics of participants and other variables of interest (exercise history, occupational posture, level of education and the income status). Disability will be assessed using the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire and the psychological risk factors will be assessed using the Illness-Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and the Fear-Avoidance Belief Questionnaire (FABQ). The second phase will be a retrospective, top-down, prevalence-based cost-of-illness study of the 2018–2019 health records, to estimate the burden of CLBP from the healthcare system’s perspective. The SPSS V.25.0 statistical package will be used for data entry and analysis. Statistical analysis will include descriptive statistics by means of graphs and cross tabulations, inferential statistics by means of logistic regression and χ(2) test. A p value of 0.05 will be deemed statistically significant. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This protocol was approved by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (Ref. No.: BREC/00000205/2019) and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Research Ethics (Ref. No.: KZ_201909_002). This will be the first LBP cost-of-illness study in the sub-Saharan Africa, and, therefore, it will close these knowledge gaps and present important evidence on the estimated burden of CLBP in this context. The results of this study will be presented to the Department of Health and to the respective stakeholders and decision-makers to discuss the findings and draw their attention to the prioritisation of LBP research, its management, prevention programmes and implementation of educational programme and for the planning of cost-containment policies.
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spelling pubmed-74675252020-09-11 The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study Kahere, Morris Ginindza, Themba BMJ Open Public Health INTRODUCTION: Low back pain (LBP) is a major public health concern, affecting individuals of all age groups across the world. In about 90% of LBP cases, there is no specific cause identified and is, therefore, referred to as non-specific LBP. Due to the non-specific nature of LBP, investigations such as radiological and laboratory investigations are unnecessary and results to delayed diagnosis and improper treatment culminating in LBP progressing into chronic LBP (CLBP). LBP is now the leading cause of disability with a significant socioeconomic burden. Despite all these challenges, CLBP is regarded as a trivial condition in low-and-middle-income countries and remains poorly investigated. The distribution of CLBP in Africa is unclear. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The research will be conducted in two phases. The initial phase will be an observational, cross-sectional hospital-based study that will be recruiting 650 participants, to determine the prevalence and risk factors of CLBP. A standardised questionnaire will be used to collect baseline data on the socio-demographic characteristics of participants and other variables of interest (exercise history, occupational posture, level of education and the income status). Disability will be assessed using the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire and the psychological risk factors will be assessed using the Illness-Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and the Fear-Avoidance Belief Questionnaire (FABQ). The second phase will be a retrospective, top-down, prevalence-based cost-of-illness study of the 2018–2019 health records, to estimate the burden of CLBP from the healthcare system’s perspective. The SPSS V.25.0 statistical package will be used for data entry and analysis. Statistical analysis will include descriptive statistics by means of graphs and cross tabulations, inferential statistics by means of logistic regression and χ(2) test. A p value of 0.05 will be deemed statistically significant. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This protocol was approved by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (Ref. No.: BREC/00000205/2019) and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Research Ethics (Ref. No.: KZ_201909_002). This will be the first LBP cost-of-illness study in the sub-Saharan Africa, and, therefore, it will close these knowledge gaps and present important evidence on the estimated burden of CLBP in this context. The results of this study will be presented to the Department of Health and to the respective stakeholders and decision-makers to discuss the findings and draw their attention to the prioritisation of LBP research, its management, prevention programmes and implementation of educational programme and for the planning of cost-containment policies. BMJ Publishing Group 2020-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7467525/ /pubmed/32873683 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039554 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Public Health
Kahere, Morris
Ginindza, Themba
The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
title The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
title_full The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
title_fullStr The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
title_full_unstemmed The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
title_short The burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
title_sort burden of non-specific chronic low back pain among adults in kwazulu-natal, south africa: a protocol for a mixed-methods study
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7467525/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32873683
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039554
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