Activity among people with chronic low back pain: How activity behaviours reflect beliefs

One of the great challenges in helping people deal with chronic pain – and indeed many common health conditions – is encouraging greater physical activity as this is known to be of significant benefit. People with pain are inactive for a wide range of reasons. This blog by Dr. Kieran O’Sullivan was completed for the BJSM blog and Body Matters, the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) led by Professor Ian Shrier, McGill University, Canada. In it, he discusses the importance of changing beliefs about the safety and benefit of activity for people with pain if we are to have any hope of acheiving a sustainable increase in activity levels.