Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Back pain medicine - divided by a common language

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Back pain medicine - divided by a common language

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19804629

    Though this is right on topic about back pain medicine, there are comments that address the wider misunderstanding of science/medicine among the lay populace. Emphasis added...

    BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2009 Oct 5;10:123.
    Divided by a lack of common language? A qualitative study exploring the use of language by health professionals treating back pain.

    Barker KL, Reid M, Minns Lowe CJ.

    Physiotherapy Research Unit, BRU, University of Oxford & Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust, Oxford, OX3 7LD, UK. karen.barker@noc.anglox.nhs.uk
    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: The importance of using a common language when communicating to others about back pain is acknowledged in the literature. There are broadly three areas where difficulties in communication about back pain arise. Firstly, patients seeking information from health care professionals can experience difficulties understanding them and the medical literature; secondly, misunderstandings among health professionals concerning terminology can arise. Thirdly, the lack of standardised definitions for back pain terms can make comparison of research studies problematic. This study aims to explore the meanings and issues surrounding the use of existing medical terms for back pain from the perspective of health care professionals, lay people who have consulted health care practitioners for back pain and lay people who have not seen a health care professional regarding back pain.

    METHODS: A series of focus groups were used to explore participants' understanding. A purposive sampling approach was used to achieve a sample which included general practitioners, chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, and lay people. Focus groups were facilitated by an independent professional qualitative researcher. They were audio taped and full transcripts of each focus group underwent line by line analysis, identifying concepts and coded. Constant comparison was used to allow each item to be checked or compared against the rest of the data

    RESULTS: Lay participants understood the majority of the terms explored in the group differently to the health professionals. The terms, as understood by the lay participants, can be split into three broad categories. Firstly, terms which were not understood or were misconstrued and which had inadvertent negative connotations or implications. Secondly, terms which were not understood or were misconstrued, but without this leading to negative emotional responses. Thirdly, terms which were understood by lay participants as the health professionals stated they intended them to be understood.

    CONCLUSION: Few of the existing medical terms were understood and accepted by lay participants in the way discussed and expected by health professionals. Misunderstandings, unintended meanings and negative emotional responses to terms were common within the study focus groups.
    Of course none of this should be surprising. In fact it seems like a penetrating glimpse into the obvious. Either folks have training or they don't.
    Sharon, mother of identical twin girls with scoliosis

    No island of sanity.

    Question: What do you call alternative medicine that works?
    Answer: Medicine


    "We are all African."
Working...
X