Table 3.
Characteristics of included studies
| Author (year) | Country (HIC or LMIC/ vulnerable group) | Population characteristics | Setting | Phenomenon (topic) of interest | Data collection methods and analytic approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allvin (2019) [75] | Sweden (HIC) | N = 9, aged 39–74 years, median age 66 years, 55% women | Participants were admitted to the hospital by a referral from primary care doctors or through the emergency department | Experience encounters with health care. | Individual semi-structured interviews, qualitative content analysis |
| Bonfim (2021) [76] | Brazil (LMIC) | N = 70, mean age 60.7 (SD 13), 83% women | Community dwelling adults who visited Physical therapy outpatient services in the city of Rio de Janeiro | Perceptions regarding the influence of clinical diagnosis on pain, beliefs, and daily life activities. | Individual semi-structured interviews, discourse content analysis |
| Cooper (2017) [77] | Scotland (HIC) | N = 36, aged 65 years and above, 75% women | Community dwelling older adults who were discharged from physiotherapy 3 to 6 months before the study | Peer-mentoring | Individual semi-structured interviews, framework analysis |
| Cummings (2017) [78] | USA (HIC) | N = 20, aged 29–78 years, with 10 participants aged over 60, 80% women | Community dwelling adults | Patient narratives about the experience of chronic back pain | Semi-structured interviews, inductive thematic analysis |
| Dima (2013) [79] | England, (HIC) | N = 75, aged 29–85 years old (median age 62 years), 64% women | Adults who had recently consulted their family doctor or CAM practitioner because of LBP | LBP treatments (medication, exercise, manual therapy, acupuncture, combined psychological and physical treatment programs, or spinal surgery), to other treatments, or to clinical management of LBP) | Focus group interviews, thematic analysis |
| Hay (2020) [80] | Canada (HIC) | N = 10, aged 66–97, 70% women | Community-dwelling | Regular exercise | Individual interviews, hermeneutic phenomenology |
| Igwesi Chidobe (2019 and 2020) [81, 82] | Nigeria (LMIC) | N = 22, mean age 53. 9 (SD 14.1), 76.9% women | Community-dwelling | The Good Back program, a six-week group self-management program that incorporates individual exercise sessions with discussion sessions; administered once weekly | Semi structured interviews, inductive content analysis |
| Igwesi-Chidobe (2017) [83] | Nigeria (LMIC) | N = 30, aged 30–69, 50% women | Community-dwelling peasant farmers | Experiences of people living with non-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP) in a rural Nigerian community | Semi-structured individual interviews, thematic analyses using the framework approach |
| Kirby (2014) [84] | Australia (HIC) | N = 50, aged 60–65 years, 100% women | The project was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health | The influences on back pain sufferers’ decision-making about treatment seeking with practitioners for their most recent episode of back pain. | Telephone based semi structured interviews, systematic thematic content analysis of the data employing a framework approach |
| Kuss (2016) [85] | Germany (HIC) | N = 16, aged 73.9 (SD 5.9), 81.3% women | Patients were referred by their general practitioners, who screened for inclusion criteria in the program | The GA program, twelve 45-minute sessions over a 9-week period. | Individual interviews and videos of the sessions were analysed with content analysis |
| Lee (2020) [54] | USA (HIC) | N = 18, aged 65 or above, 61% women | Community dwelling | A 36-week t’ai chi intervention beginning with twice weekly classes for 12 weeks, weekly classes for 6 weeks, biweekly classes for 6 weeks, and monthly classes for 12 weeks | Focus group interviews, grounded theory |
| Leonhardt (2017) [86] | Germany (HIC) | N = 16, mean age 72.6 (SD 4.7), 62,5% women | A primary care setting | A cognitive-behavioural exposure-based physical therapy program | Semi structured, content analysis |
| Lilje (2017) [87] | Sweden (HIC) | N = 15, aged, mean age 76,7 (range 67–86), 53,3% women | Community dwelling | Mobile phone text messaging as reminders of home exercises after specialized manual therapy | Semi-structured interview, systematic text condensation |
| Lin (2013 and 2014) [88, 89] | Australia (HIC/ Aboriginal population) | N = 32, aged 26–72 years, 34.4% women | Community dwelling | Low back pain beliefs of Aboriginal Australians | In-depth interviews informed by clinical ethnography and cultural security. Informed by clinical ethnography and cultural security. |
| Luiggi-Hernandez (2018) [90] | USA (HIC) | N = 25, age mean 76.6 (SD 7.1), 60% women | Community dwelling | Eight-week mindfulness program | Focus group interviews/ thematic analysis |
| Lyons (2013) [91] | USA (HIC) | N = 48, mean age (75.2 (SD 8.0) years, 79% women | Community dwelling | Preferences of older adults for LBP co-management by medical doctors and Doctor of Chiropractic | Focus group interviews, content analysis |
| MacKichan (2013) [92] | UK (HIC) | N = 23, aged 38–83 years, 47,8% women | Participants were identified through a postal survey of a stratified sample of 3060 adults who were identified at random through patient records at three GP practices | Patients’ experience of self-care for long-term back pain and their views on provision of support for self-care. | In depth interviews, constant comparative method |
| Makris (2015) [93] | USA (HIC) | N = 93, median age 83, 68% Women, the years, | Community dwelling | Beliefs and perspectives regarding care-seeking for restricting back pain | 23 semi-structured interviews and 16 focus groups, an inductive text driven approach to qualitative thematic analysis |
| Morone (2008) [94] | USA (HIC) | N = 27, mean age 74.3 (SD 5.3), 52% women | Community dwelling | Clinical trial of an 8-week mindfulness meditation program | Content analysis of meditation diaries written by older adults |
| Rodriguez 2019 [95] | Chile (HIC) | N = 10, aged 67–79, 80% women | Community dwelling | Experience of chronic pain produced by spinal deformity | Semi-structured interviews, grounded theory |
| Stensland (2021) [53] | USA (HIC) | N = 21, mean age 71 years (SD 5.5), 62% women | Community dwelling | Experiences of pain management approaches | Semi-structured interviews/ phenomenology |
| Teh (2009) [96] | USA (HIC) | N = 15, aged 63–86 years, 67% women | Patients had been referred to a university-based pain clinic by their primary care providers and had previously participated in a study of older adults with chronic pain | Experiences of seeking treatment for chronic pain, with respect to patient-directed care and the patient–provider relationship | In-depth interviews, grounded theory |
HIC High income country, LMIC low- and middle-income countries