The prevalence of fear avoidance and pain catastrophising amongst patients with chronic neck pain

South African Journal of Physiotherapy

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The prevalence of fear avoidance and pain catastrophising amongst patients with chronic neck pain
 
Creator Cresswell, Clare Galantino, Mary L. Myezwa, Hellen
 
Subject Physiotherapy; Pain Management; prevalence; fear avoidance; pain catastrophising; chronic neck pain; South Africa
Description Background: Cognitive factors impact chronic pain, but the prevalence of fear avoidance (FA) and pain catastrophising (PC) in individuals suffering from chronic neck pain (CNP) has not been investigated in South Africa.Objectives: To determine the prevalence of FA and PC in patients with CNP at private physiotherapy practices in Johannesburg.Method: The Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia-11 (TSK-11) (α = 0.80) and Pain Catastrophising Scale (α = 0.87) self-report questionnaires were used in a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of FA and PC, respectively. Descriptive statistics and correlations using Pearson’s or Spearman’s coefficient were conducted between demographic variables and FA and PC. Non-parametric data were tested using the Wilcoxon rank-sum or Kruskal–Wallis test. Cohen’s d-value or r-value measured strength of associations.Results: A sample of 106 CNP patients with a mean age of 48.7 years (± 14.8) from 25 randomly selected private practices participated in the study. Of the participants, 81% were women (n = 86). Fear avoidance and PC had a prevalence of 25.5% (n = 27) and 15.1% (n = 16), respectively. A positive correlation was found between FA-11-Total and PC-Total (r = 0.684; p = 0.0001) and between FA (TSK-11-Total and TSK-SF (somatic focus)) and PC and its subscales (r ≥ 0.602; p = 0.0001). Participants with a secondary education (26.0 ± 3.4) showed a higher FA than those with tertiary education (21.9 ± 1.5). Effect size was moderate (Cohen’s d = 0.60). Pain intensity correlated positively with both FA (Pearson’s correlation: r = 0.33; p = 0.001) and PC (Spearman’s correlation; r = 0.39; p = 0.0001).Conclusion: FA and PC affect a number of patients with CNP. A lower level of education was associated with FA and a higher pain intensity was associated with higher FA and PC.Clinical implications: Identifying FA and PC in patients with CNP is important to facilitate holistic management.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-01-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Cross-Sectional Design Study
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajp.v76i1.1326
 
Source South African Journal of Physiotherapy; Vol 76, No 1 (2020); 9 pages 2410-8219 0379-6175
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.co.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1326/1937 https://sajp.co.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1326/1936 https://sajp.co.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1326/1938 https://sajp.co.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1326/1935
 
Coverage Johannesburg; South Africa — Adults with Chronic Neck Pain
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Clare Cresswell, Mary L. Galantino, Hellen Myezwa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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