Understanding the Impact of Back Pain in Community-Living Older Persons
Investigator: Una E. Makris, MD – Associate Research Scientist, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Yale University
The specific aim of this project is to explore older persons’ perspectives, experiences, and attitudes regarding how restricting back pain impacts daily life from multiple dimensions, including social, physical, and psychological. In a race/ethnicity stratified sample, we will conduct semi-structured focus groups with community-living older persons (by purposefully sampling participants ≥ 65 years of age who are men, women, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, non-Hispanic White in Connecticut and New York (NY) senior centers) to further investigate the impact of restricting back pain. We expect that the focus groups will provide critical new information from the perspective of older persons that will (1) characterize the clinical course and burden of restricting back pain in this population and (2) identify possible targets for intervention.