How health care providers can help change goal setting of LBP-patients from painoriented
to function-oriented: Qualitative evaluation of an innovative multidisciplinary outpatient care program
report
In industrialized countries workers with low back pain (LBP) mean a heavy human, societal and economic burdeni. The total annual cost of LBP to the Dutch society is estimated to be € 4.6 billion, 7% health care related and 93% primarily related to longterm disability. Although, in general, the prognosis for return-to- work (RTW) is good, approximately 10% to 25% of the patients remains long-term absent from work and becomes at risk of social and financial deprivation. This group of LBP patients, furthermore, causes 75% of the sick leave and disability costs1,iv. These patients often have a long, medicalizing history, consisting of all kind of different treatments, mostly aiming at eliminating pain, often ending up in secondary curative care, where attention to work-related aspects, including to work resumption, is often lackingv. Also cooperation and information exchange between treating and occupational physicians is often insufficientvi - another obstacle for RTW. Research shows that work related problems are associated with an increase in seeking medical care and sick leaveix. However, there is strong evidence that most clinical interventions are not effective for RTWx, xi. So it seems useful to develop and test a specific program, aiming at work resumption including work(place) intervention and graded activity, with functional restore as leading principle instead of pain reduction.
TNO Identifier
873336
Publisher
TNO
Collation
21 p.
Place of publication
Hoofddorp
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