Physiotherapy students' experiences of managing their own persistent low back pain: an interview study.

Provision of information and advice from a physiotherapist is often assumed to be translated into action by a patient with low back pain (LBP). However, this assumption is questionable. The aim of this study is to explore physiotherapy students' individual experiences with managing persistent low back pain. This is a qualitative interview study using individual semi-structured interviews based on a phenomenological approach to explore physiotherapy students' management of their own low back pain. Participants had to have non-specific low back pain for more than three months. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic text analysis. Ten participants with a median age of 25 years were included. The analysis revealed three themes important for the participants' management of their own persistent LBP: impact on everyday life, knowledge about LBP and ability to self-manage. Self-managing persistent low back pain can still be a challenge even when possessing professional knowledge about pain. This indicates that only providing patients with information and advice does not lead to the expected behaviours, but that healthcare professionals need to listen to their patients and tailor advice and strategies to meet physical, psychological and social challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]