Individual recovery expectations and prognosis of low back pain: Synthesis and implementation of prognostic factor evidence

Low back pain is one of the most costly and disabling conditions worldwide. Researchers have not identified a specific cause for most cases and although many treatments are available, none have shown strong effectiveness for all people. A new area of research that may be useful in this situation is to investigate characteristics of people and their environment that are related to increased disability. Recent studies have suggested people who think that they are going to do poorly (i.e. poor recovery expectations), in fact, do experience more disability with their low back pain, however study results have differed. Further understanding about recovery expectations and its relationship to outcome can help inform management of low back pain, relevant to service and healthcare providers. In this project we will explore the relationship between individual recovery expectations and outcome in adults experiencing low back pain. We will use a systematic review of the research literature to identify all relevant studies that have been published, and will combine and compare information from them to draw conclusions. Since this is a new area of research, we will also explore the best ways to conduct this type of research synthesis, including different literature search strategies and testing a way to assess the quality of studies included in the review. Throughout the project we will communicate with low back pain healthcare providers to help us to better understand and deliver appropriate messages about our findings. The knowledge from this review will help understand the relationship between recovery expectations and low back pain outcomes. These results will be useful to plan strategies for managing adults with low back pain. Related methodological work will inform future prognostic factor systematic reviews and extend the benefits of well conducted evidence syntheses.