THE INFLUENCE OF A WEB-BASED BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL PAIN EDUCATION INTERVENTION ON PAIN, DISABILITY, AND PAIN COGNITION IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN IN PRIMARY CARE.

Background and aim: There is evidence that web-based educational interventions can change and improve the knowledge of patients with chronic pain and have a positive impact on their attitudes and behaviors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a web-based biopsychosocial pain education intervention for chronic low back pain compared to conventional care on pain intensity, fear-avoidance beliefs, kinesiophobia, and disability.Methods: Double-blind randomized control trial with a parallel group design including 48 patients with chronic low back pain. The intervention group (n = 26) had access to a website.The educational material was based on a previous qualitative study. The control group (n = 22) followed conventional care provided by their family physician.Results: A per-protocol analysis was carried out (n = 44) using a two-way mixed factorial analysis of variance. There was no statistically significant interaction between treatment and time for pain intensity (p = 0.36). In the short term, there was a statistically significant difference on disability favoring the experimental group (p = 0.02), representing a medium effect size. Nostatistically significant differences were found in pain intensity, fear-avoidance beliefs and kinesiophobia between groups.Conclusions: A web-based bio psychosocial pain education intervention for patients with chronic low back pain proved to be more beneficial than conventional care provided by family physicians in primary care on disability, although this result could be more related to the greater disability scores post-test in the control group rather than with the improvement obtained in theexperimental group.