Table 1.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

An article was included if it: Reported a quantitative measure of a belief about back pain; ○Beliefs about pain which were not specifically about back pain were also included if individuals reported concurrent back pain and if a belief measure asked about ‘their pain’. ○Articles reporting on the prevalence of a belief had to report its prevalence within the entire sample relevant to the article and not within purposively selected subgroups. ○Articles reporting a cross‐sectional or longitudinal relationship between a belief and some other factor were included if they reported the strength or direction of the relationship. Reported on a sample drawn from a general population sampling frame; Was published in a peer‐reviewed journal

An article was excluded if it: Did not contribute unique data; Did not measure or report beliefs about back pain in the absence of an explicit intervention for back pain; Was one of the following types of publication: editorial, commentary, meeting abstract, dissertation, unpublished manuscript, book, book chapter, guideline, (systematic) review; For cross‐sectional and prospective associations, did not report the strength or direction of the relationship between a belief about back pain and another factor or only reported group‐based differences