At their meeting in Valencia in May 2024, the ECCRE board awarded part-funding to two new exciting research projects:
Headache and musculoskeletal pain: cooccurrence, pain profiles and development over time
Danish researcher Mette Mouritsen Sørensen receives EUR 117.543 for her research into the identification of different profiles of people who experience co-occurring headache and muscle/joint pain and to examine their use of the health care system, use of pain medication, and sickness absence over time.
The aim of this study is to explore the combinations of different headache and muscle/joint pain conditions. It will assess whether some of these combinations increase the risk of a less favourable clinical course.
The project consists of three studies: An analysis of existing research literature to determine the frequency of simultaneous headache and muscle/joint pain; an aim to identify groups of people in a Norwegian population who experience co-occurring headache and muscle/joint pain, and estimate their use of healthcare, pain medication, and absence from work over an 11-year period; a categorisation of Danish chiropractic patients according to the presence of headache and muscle/joint pain, and examine their use of healthcare, pain medication, and absence from work over one year.
The results of this study will inform chiropractors and other health care professionals about the importance of identifying cooccurring headache and muscle/joint pain. It will help them identify patients who are at risk of over-medicating or over-utilising unbeneficial healthcare services and identify patients who are at higher risk of absence from work and, ultimately, premature exit from the labour force. Once identified, appropriate treatment and patient education can be initiated. Management strategies can then be tailored to the individual to prevent unwanted life course outcomes.
Manual therapists as first contact for patients with spinal disorders in primary care – the GATE study - opportunities and obstacles from the view of the health care staff
Swedish researcher Andreas Eklund receives EUR 52.394 for his research into the major challenge primary health care around the world is facing regarding patients with back and neck pain. These are extremely common disorders, which should not be prescribed imaging, strong medications or surgery; the majority of these patients should be managed with reassurance, exercise and some physiological therapies.
Andreas Eklund and his research group will study the inclusion of manual therapists into primary health care centres. They propose that manual therapists have a screening role for patients with spinal pain.
Before they can undertake this study, they need to examine the current procedures in primary health care, how staff working with these patients perceive these procedures, and how staff could work with manual therapists to alleviate their workload and improve care for these patients. What are the barriers and facilitators to having manual therapists screening patients with spinal pain?
Therefore, Andreas Eklund and his research group are proposing an interview with general practitioners, physiotherapists and management in one of Stockholm’s largest primary health care centres, to answer these questions.
The information gained from these interviews will inform the next study: what information is needed to inform staff and what procedures will need to be formed.
Congratulations to Mette Mouritsen Sørensen and Andreas Eklund on receiving part-funding for their research projects.