Table 2.

The experience of physical therapy in underserved participants with chronic low back pain

	Examples
Empowerment through education and exercise	Q: And how did it feel to be doing something to help your back pain finally? A: It felt great. Instead of just taking medication or putting a hot pack on or rubbing some Icy Hot on it... it felt good, you know, I’m taking charge of healing myself, controlling myself. …come to find out now before the study that I wasn’t doing the right exercises I should be doing it because of my back, so I was kind of hurting myself a little bit. So since the study I’ve learned a lot of new ideas and stuff that helps me now, other than when I was doing it on my own. You know, cause’ I realized the more I start to work out, you lose some weight, so you start to feel better, and every time you work out you start to feel more energetic, and you know, you lose a pound here and there and you’re like “oh my goodness, ok.”
Interconnectedness
Patient-Therapist Relationship	Yeah, I like my experience with them because they were very friendly because that is the most important thing when you are a client, when you have rapport, good relationship with them.
Patient-Patient Relationship	Q: And what was it like being in a study with other people like you had had low back pain? A: It was good! It felt good that I wasn’t the only one and we can all talk about our progress and how we were feeling and different things.
Negative Patient-Therapist Relationship	I just saw what the other staff was doing with their patients and comparing it to what my therapist was doing. You know, they was full-on, they never left their side. They wasn’t making phone calls and trying to call a friend, and all over the place.
Improvements in pain, body mechanics, and mood
Improved Mood	You’re not so feeling like, ‘Geesh, what can I do?’ Depression isn’t there. Because it can become a bummer when you’re limited like that.
Decreased Pain	Because usually when I first came, I was bending when I’m walking, bending, I can’t walk straight. Now I can walk straight. Before if I walked, like, few steps, I would be feeling [inaudible] on my leg, feeling pains. All those ones now I don’t feel it anymore, for now.
Increased Flexibility	Q: So it hurt the first time? A: The first time, yeah because I was just stiff. And then when I started to relax, bend, do this, do that, I found that my body was, my muscles were a little more flexible.
Improved Strength/Posture	Yeah I think about [posture] more every time I just let go. And I said I gotta keep myself up, and then so my muscles can be strong.
No Change in Pain	Well, at least I don’t think it’s helped. It may have helped as far as making my back stronger, but I still feel a lot of back pain most of all the time, so it hasn’t gone away.