Back Beliefs Among the General Population

This study will be conducted in collaboration with HESAV (Haute Ecole de Sante Vaud). The research group at the HESAV has developed an educational website in 2020, called "www.infomaldedos.ch". The website aims to educate people on low back pain, and common unhelpful beliefs about the back - primarily targeting the belief about the fragility of the back and the need for its protection - are addressed. In the current study we are going to translate the above-mentioned website to the German language. Furthermore, we are going to assess the quality and applicability of a short video intervention among the general population, using one of the videos from the website.

Participants will be recruited through social media and emails. A link will be created to the questionnaire and the educational video with LimeSurvey. A 'randomizer' built-in function will be used to blindly split people into intervention or control group. The link will be spread on social media platforms and through email. To induce a snowball sampling method, all participants will be asked to send the link further.

The length of the video intervention is 3 minutes. In the video, health care professionals, such as a psychologist, a medical doctor, a professor, and physiotherapist interviewed by a scientist explains the burden of LBP, how unhelpful beliefs affect treatment outcome, difficulties in the management of LBP and the optimal way of treating LBP. The scientist then inquires a representative patient about their own experiences of the management of LBP. At the end of the video the scientist encourages people to exercise despite LBP by performing various movements.

The control group will receive a neutral video about the back, selected from YouTube.

Inclusion criteria

• Age >18 years

Exclusion criteria

• Professionals and students with prior knowledge on the topic of interest such as physiotherapists, osteopaths, and chiropractors.