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- Demmelmaier, Ingrid, 1960-
(author)
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Behaviours, Beliefs and Back Pain : Prognostic Factors for Disability in the General Population and Implementation of Screening in Primary Care Physiotherapy
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to study prognostic factors for prolonged disability in back pain in the general population and physiotherapists’ screening for prolonged disability, applying a social cognitive learning perspective. Methods and results: Studies I and II were based on a survey in the general population in Sweden. Study I included 1024 individuals aged 20-50 years, reporting non-specific back pain. Four groups (n = 100, 215, 172 and 537) based on duration and recurrence of back pain were formed and compared. After controlling for pain intensity, catastrophising and expectations of future pain were positively correlated to pain duration. Perceived social support was negatively correlated to pain duration. Study II was longitudinal over 12 months and analysed one group reporting first-episode back pain (n = 77), and one group reporting long-term back pain (n = 302). Future pain intensity and disability were predicted by initial levels of pain and disability and pain-related cognitions in both groups. Study III examined the inter-rater reliability of a research protocol for assessment of physiotherapists’ telephone screening for prolonged disability. The results demonstrated sufficient inter-rater reliability. Study IV evaluated the effect of a tailored skills training intervention on physiotherapists’ screening for prolonged disability in back pain. Four physiotherapists in primary care participated in four quasi-experimental single-subject studies. Effects were seen in all participants, with increased screening of prognostic factors and less time spent on detailed discussions about back pain. Conclusions: The identification of mainly cognitive explanatory variables indicates the relevance of a social cognitive perspective of back pain-related disability (studies I and II). Physiotherapists’ telephone screening for prolonged disability in back can be reliably assessed (study III). It is suggested that interventions based on social cognitive theory are effective in producing change in specified clinical behaviours in physiotherapists (study IV).
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| 2. |
- Emilson, Christina, 1969-
(author)
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Long-term perspectives on musculoskeletal pain : Health care utilization and integration of behavioral medicine treatment into physical therapy
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- There are currently no effective methods for treating and preventing chronic pain. The aim of this thesis was to study prognostic factors for health care utilization, and the long-term outcomes of tailored behavioral medicine treatment for patients with musculoskeletal pain. Another aim was to increase knowledge about physical therapists’ assessment and analysis of patients’ pain conditions and to investigate the potential of subgrouping patients based on prognostic factors.Methods: In Study I, a prospective population-based cohort was followed over 21 years. Data from three measure points were analyzed: 1995 (n=2425), 2007 (n=1582) and 2016 (n=1184). Study II was a 10-year follow-up of randomized controlled trial (n=97), comparing tailored behavioral medicine treatment and exercise-based physical therapy. In Study III, a descriptive and explorative design was applied, using data from video-recordings of 12 physical therapists. In study IV, assignment to three subgroups based on the Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire was validated against reference instruments, and the stability between two points of measurement was investigated in patients (n=40) who were seeking primary health care due to musculoskeletal pain.Results: Chronic pain, female gender and high age predict high health care utilization over 21 years, and a trajectory of stable high health care utilization over the entire period. The differences between groups in favor for tailored behavioral medicine treatment reported at post-treatment and after two years, were not maintained at the 10-year follow-up. A majority of the physical therapists assessed factors for poor prognosis. The analyses were mainly based on biomedical assessments and none of the physical therapists included behavioral factors. Subgroup assignment according to the Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire appears to be valid and stable over time.Conclusion: Prognostic factors such as chronic pain and female gender need to be considered when allocating health care resources and planning treatment to improve long-term outcomes. The treatment should also be tailored based on individual functional behavioral analyses of key behaviors and on patient´s biomedical and psychosocial condition, including strategies for maintenance of behavioral changes. Evidence-based methods for integrating behavioral medicine treatment into physical therapy need to be further evaluated and improved.
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| 3. |
- Tegler, Helena
(author)
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Social Interaction Involving Non-speaking Children with Severe Cerebral Palsy and Intellectual Disability : The role of communication partners and speech-generating devices
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the use of speech-generating device (SGD)-mediated interaction with children with anarthria, severe physical impairments and intellectual disabilities due to cerebral palsy with a focus on partner strategies and social practices.Studies I and II were cross-sectional studies that used questionnaires, which were analyzed using descriptive statistics and directed content analysis. In Study I, speech and language pathologists’ (SLPs) practices and perceptions of communication partner training in SGD-mediated interaction were examined. In Study II, communication partners’ (i.e., caregivers’, teachers’, and assistants’) practices and perceptions of communication partner training in SGD-mediated interaction were examined.Studies III and IV were qualitative observational studies that used video recordings, which were analyzed with ethnomethodological conversation analysis. Study III investigated how multiparty classroom interaction was organized when one of the students used an eye-gaze accessed SGD. Study IV explored the social actions that mobilized SGD-mediated responses when the child was a beginner user of the eye-gaze accessed SGD.The findings suggest the following: all participants (i.e., SLPs, caregivers, teachers, and assistants) considered that SGD-mediated interaction was beneficial for the children. SLPs were important providers but they provided few training sessions and used mostly verbal instructions. Communication partners could benefit from more support from SLPs and SLPs should consider using additional instructional approaches such as feedback and role-play when coaching communication partners in SGD-mediated interaction. Children could interact with their eye-gaze accessed SGDs in multiparty classroom interactions provided that the turn-taking in Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE) sequences was applied and that the teacher or the assistant provided contingent on-screen gaze and deictic scaffolding actions. Communication partners to children who were beginner users of an eye-gaze accessed SGD may need to produce repeated turn transition relevance places and use contingent on-screen gaze and deictic practices to scaffold an SGD-mediated response.This thesis brings new knowledge to the field of SGD-mediated interaction. Partner strategies that can enhance children’s linguistic skills were seldom used in multiparty classroom interaction, but other social practices were used, which facilitated social inclusion and participation.
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