Research Questions

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1

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance towards developing a research question for my MSc dissertation. I’m a physiotherapy student and would like to focus my research on ‘pain beliefs, behavioural change and physical activity’. I recognise this is a large topic area and would likely conduct a review based project but currently struggling with what gaps there are in literature that contribute to developing a more finalised research question.

If anyone happens to be an expert in this area that’d be great! but any help such as a recent paper that mentions research gaps on this topic, or any physio’s/ health care professionals who recognise a gap in care/research that again could assist in the development of a research question would be extremely helpful.

My preliminary ideas right now would perhaps be:
-attempting to understand the strategies used for behavioural change counselling in physiotherapy to promote physical activity and re framing of negative pain beliefs/behaviours.

-The second is attempting to recognise if physiotherapy students have enough exposure to behavioural change counselling strategies with respect to pain beliefs and behaviours that encapsulates a BPS model of care, or if a biomedical model is more prominent

thanks for reading!

all the best,
Cameron

2

Not an expert, but here are some resources that I’ve gathered and have read through over the last few months.

  1. Darlow B, Dowell A, Baxter GD, Mathieson F, Perry M, Dean S. The enduring impact of what clinicians say to people with low back pain. Ann Fam Med. 2013;11(6):527-534. doi:10.1370/afm.1518
  2. Foster, Nadine EBuchbinder, Rachelle et al. Prevention and treatment of low back pain: evidence, challenges, and promising directions The Lancet, Volume 391, Issue 10137, 2368 - 2383
  3. Kim LH, Vail D, Azad TD, et al. Expenditures and Health Care Utilization Among Adults With Newly Diagnosed Low Back and Lower Extremity Pain. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(5):e193676. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.3676
  4. Peter B O’Sullivan, J P Caneiro, Mary O’Keeffe, Anne Smith, Wim Dankaerts, Kjartan Fersum, Kieran O’Sullivan, Cognitive Functional Therapy: An Integrated Behavioral Approach for the Targeted Management of Disabling Low Back Pain, Physical Therapy, Volume 98, Issue 5, May 2018, Pages 408–423, Cognitive Functional Therapy: An Integrated Behavioral Approach for the Targeted Management of Disabling Low Back Pain | Physical Therapy | Oxford Academic
  5. Punnett L, Prüss-Utün A, Nelson DI, et al. Estimating the global burden of low back pain attributable to combined occupational exposures. Am J Ind Med. 2005;48(6):459-469. doi:10.1002/ajim.20232
  6. Rainville J, Smeets RJ, Bendix T, Tveito TH, Poiraudeau S, Indahl AJ. Fear-avoidance beliefs and pain avoidance in low back pain–translating research into clinical practice. Spine J. 2011;11(9):895-903. doi:10.1016/j.spinee.2011.08.006
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