Building Foundations for Research on Self-Management for Chronic Low Back Pain in Ethiopia

Low back pain is a major musculoskeletal health problem globally. People with chronic low back pain have unpredictable recovery trajectories and poor prognoses. They also experience persistent or recurrent disability compared to people with acute low back pain. Self-management supports are regarded as effective management for people with chronic low back pain. However, there are gaps related to research on chronic low back pain self-management in Ethiopia. This thesis has four studies with an overarching aim of building foundations for research on self-management supports for people with chronic low back pain in Ethiopia. The first study was an interpretative phenomenological study aimed at exploring the lived experience of adults with chronic low back pain in Ethiopia. The findings suggested that chronic low back pain impacted the lives of people with the condition in a multitude of ways. The findings also provided insight into how people with chronic low back pain manage, cope, and live with pain. The second study explored health care providers’ understanding and perspectives related to self-management and how they facilitate self-management support for people with chronic low back pain in Ethiopia. The findings indicated that self-management is a new concept in Ethiopia. The health care providers conceptualized self-management support which did not align with existing literature on best practices in self-management for people with chronic low back pain. The third and fourth studies fill the existing gap of the absence of outcome tools used in implementing and evaluating chronic low back pain self-management in Ethiopia. The third study aimed to cross-culturally translate and adapt the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire iii into Amharic and validate it among people with low back pain in Ethiopia. The results suggested that the Amharic version of the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire is a reliable and valid outcome measure among Amharic-speaking Ethiopians with chronic low back pain. The last study cross-culturally translated, adapted, and tested the psychometric properties of Self-efficacy Questionnaire in Ethiopia. The results suggested that the Amharic version of the Pain Self-efficacy Questionnaire is a reliable and valid outcome measure among people with chronic low back pain in Ethiopia.

Department dc:contributor.department

Rehabilitation Science

Author dc:creator

• Chala, Mulugeta

Advisors dc:contributor.supervisor

• Miller, Jordan
• Donnelly, Catherine

• Chronic low back pain
• Self-management
• Self-management supports
• Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire
• Pain Self-efficacy Questionnaire
• Psychometric tests
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
• Interpretive Description
• Ethiopia
• Rehabilitation Science

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1974/29459

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:queensu.scholaris.ca:1974/29459