Coping with chronic lower back pain: Designing and testing the online tool ONESELF

Peter J. Schulz, Sara Rubinelli, Maria Caiata Zufferey, Uwe Hartung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

A website was designed in order to help patients with chronic lower back pain (cLBP) to cope with their condition, relying on the concept of health literacy. A sample of 748 chronic or potentially chronic LBP patients were asked to regularly visit the site for a period of 12 months. The intervention was evaluated quantitatively (both preuse and postuse surveys, logfiles) and qualitatively. Users appear to have taken less painkillers than before in the period they accessed the site. Most users reported that the site contributed to increasing their knowledge, and helped them managing their back pain. Communication with doctors, family, and colleagues improved. Qualitative evaluation showed several positive effects including self-comprehension, improvement of argumentative abilities, orientation, and self-confidence.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)625-645
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2010

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