Comprehension of coping attitudes and red flags of low back pain by students of the first and seventh semesters of health courses

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Low back pain is a common complaint among the world’s population. Students in the health sector are susceptible to it due to their routines with a heavy study load. The objective of this study was to analyze health students’ understanding of coping attitudes and the red flags of low back pain. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study carried out at a public university in northeastern Brazil. Between October 2022 and June 2023, a low back pain education training program was carried out, with the application of an online questionnaire through the Google Forms tool, in pre-test and post-test formats, containing six sections of questions from semi-structured questionnaires, interposed by the education program on the subject. The variables investigated were sociodemographic data, prevalence of low back pain, coping attitudes and red flags. RESULTS: A total of 260 students participated in the research, most of whom were in the first semester (61.5%), aged 21 years or older (51.2%), and female (61.2%). The majority had no knowledge about coping attitudes (73.1%) and red flags for low back pain (94.2%) in the pre-test, but acquired it in the post-test (91.9% and 78.5%, respectively). The McNemar inferential test showed that the approach to the topic influenced the appropriate conduct required in the post-test (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Understanding coping attitudes and red flags of low back pain contributed to the education of students and optimized the assessment practices for patients with low back pain.

Keywords

• health education
• health sciences students
• low back pain
• occupational health
• public health