Table 2 Key qualitative themes
Theme | Example quote | Number of participants | |
|---|---|---|---|
Walking | Walking more slowly | “No. I walk, [I just] I don’t walk as fast” P01–006 | 21/23 |
Can only walk short distances | “Walking, I can’t walk for long periods of time even though I try. I … that’s what one of my exercises. I try to push myself” P01–002 | ||
Stairs | Using a handrail on stairs/steps | “So I’m just real careful when I walk, and I grab handrails when I go down stairs.” P02–007 | 10/23 |
Go upstairs more slowly | “I have a hard time going up and down steps … I have to hold the railing and I have to do one step up. One step up. One step [at a time moving slowly]-” P03–004 | ||
Sitting and standing* | Unable to sit or stand for long periods of time | “Yeah, I can’t stand ... I mean, I can’t stand too much, I can’t sit down too much.” P01–007 | Sitting 23/23; 8/23 also discussed problems with standing |
Changing position to get comfortable | “Sitting for a long time and standing up, uh, takes a while to, you know, get to where I can, I’m comfortable moving forward I need to get up … Get the, you know, the soreness out. Because if I, if I sit for a long period, it’s really difficult” P01–001 | ||
Holding something to get in/out of a chair | “at certain times, when I’m either getting up out of a chair, or sitting in a chair, and that it feels like my back has gone out, then I have to really grab on to something.” P03–007 | ||
Difficulty getting out of a chair | “I mean sometimes it’s just getting up out of a chair, or sometimes it’s sitting in a chair [which cause pain], you know what I mean?” P03–007 | ||
Sitting down more | “And sometimes if it’s, you know, a 7 or 8 [pain] day, then I’ll sit in the recliner with the heating pad.” P02–003 | ||
Bending and kneeling | Pain while bending | “it’s just pain like on my lower back. Like, say if I bend over” P01–003 | 12/23 |
Pain while kneeling | “Um, probably like taking stuff out of the washer, to bend down to put it into the dryer … or clean the litter box, when you’re, you know, when you’re ... kneeling and scooping [are more difficult because of the CLBP]” P02–003 | ||
Avoiding bending/kneeling or using assistance | “[my wife] Ties my shoes for me. Uh, like, uh, bending over is, uh, hard” P01–005 | ||
Lifting | Pain while lifting | Lifting. I, I occasionally do land-scaping at our house and lifting bags of, uh, mulch, bags of dirt, um, doing those a lot definitely brings on the back pain” P02–004 | 15/23 |
Avoiding lifting | “Uh, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t do nothing heavy. Anything that’s probably 50 pounds or more, I really stay away from that kind of stuff” P01–005 | ||
Lying down | Lying down was not spontaneously reported in the concept elicitation section of the interviews, it was highlighted as important and relevant to 23/23 participants during the cognitive debriefing of the RMDQ, and as such was pulled into the conceptual model. | ||
Chores/ housework | Avoiding/not doing as many jobs around the home | “Sometimes, just when I have severe pain or when I feel an onset coming on......I feel like I can’t function correctly. So, I sometimes just decide not walk my dog, clean the house or wash my car.” P01–008 | 23/23 |
Being slower/not getting as much done | “You know, so instead of knocking half my list on a weekend I might, just get one project done. Just take my time with it”. P02–001 | ||
Getting other people to do jobs | “I hire young men with strong backs to do jobs around the home [as I can’t do it now].” P02–007 | ||
Dressing | Trouble putting on socks, shoes and trousers | “I’ve not been able to put on my socks and shoes and struggle mightily with my pants” P02–004 | 19/23 |
Needing help to get dressed | “my girlfriend puts my socks on for me and my shoes … So she [girlfriend] does the pants, you know” P01–005 | ||
Getting dressed more slowly | “You give yourself a little bit more time to get dressed once in a while or a little bit more time to go somewhere” P02–008 | ||
Washing | Difficulties with washing | “Um, well, you know, in the shower, again, I’m very conscious about all movements, um luckily we have grab bars and things in there. I utilize those. Um, minimize twisting, uh bending, you know all that sort of thing” P02–001 | 11/23 |
Driving | Getting in and out of cars | “[getting] Out of, out of a car, certain cars … The lower the chair or the, whatever you’re sitting on … the harder” P02–008 | 9/23 |
Remaining in the same position long periods of time | “once that happens [Pain from CLBP], I am not able to go out to work. Um, just because I, I’ll normally be a long time of period in the car [and I can’t sit for that period of time].” P01–008 | ||
Work# | Not able to work or do same job/taking a break at work | “Um, to the point at work where I actually have to stop working for that little bit of time, to try and ease the pain in my back” P03–007 | 12/23 |
“Uh-huh (affirmative), because now, yeah, not working because I always have a pain, so I do the best I can” P01–007 | |||
Relationships and socializing | Missing events/Staying at home | “I mean, family picnics, … we missed Christmas Eve with the family. [we have missed] All kinds of family functions over the years. You know, we’ve been married for, uh, 21 years so there’s been lots of things over the years [we have missed because of the CLBP].” P02–004 | 17/23 |
Relationships with children and family | “my kids I could never do anything with them. I couldn’t play football, or baseball. I tried to coach little league with my son and I couldn’t do it. It was too much pain. I tried to play softball myself and I couldn’t do it. I had to, I had to quit because I couldn’t run”. P03–006 | ||
Sexual activities | “Um, I haven’t had sex for over, maybe 15 years. [because of my CLBP]” P03–004 | ||
Support system | ”I have very strong support system, very strong, um, family ties” P01–002 | ||
Mood | Moody, irritable and short tempered | “Oh, yeah. I think, uh, I feel like I’m more agitated easily. I have mood swings, constantly” P01–008 | 20/23 |
Depression and anxiety | “Um, I, I get depressed because of, thinking about things that I used to do, that I can’t do, and there’s a whole lot of other things” P03–004 | ||
Sleep | Hard to fall asleep | “Oh, yes. Um, I find it hard to fall asleep sometime” P01–008 | 20/23 |
Waking up | “It’s, um, say, say when I’m lying in bed sleeping at night … I, I wake up and, and, and I got to ... and I can’t move. I got to get up. I’ve got to sit up and I’ve got to sit there for a minute because it hurts so bad” P03–006 | ||
Can’t get comfortable | “like I’m tossing and turning. I try to do the lying on the side, put the pillow between my legs for my spine and, uh, I tried the pillows up, raising my feet up. You know, I, I did different things” P01–005 | ||
Appetite | Appetite was not spontaneously reported in the concept elicitation section of the interviews, it was highlighted as important and relevant to 21/23 participants during the cognitive debriefing of the RMDQ, and as such was pulled into the conceptual model. | ||