Pain study carried out on-island could have global influence

Guernseyman Martin Rabey and his wife, Niamh Moloney, who now live in Australia, carried out their study, along with two other researchers, between January 2019 and February 2020, when they were both living locally and running Thrive Physiotherapy.

They took evidence from more than 1,600 islanders, around two-thirds of whom had experienced pain for at least three months during the previous year.

‘We hope clinicians and researchers worldwide will consider this research when thinking about assessing and managing people with different pain conditions, particularly when attempting to help manage pain through public health strategies.

‘We have already been contacted by a researcher who is going to adapt our survey for use in New Zealand,’ said Dr Rabey.

The study was the first of its kind carried out in Guernsey. It examined the public’s knowledge and beliefs regarding musculoskeletal pain and managing pain.

The researchers said they started it because better understanding of the effects of pain and responding to pain is acknowledged as an important part of improving care for patients.

‘Most research in this area suggests that people’s understanding of pain conditions is quite biomedical. They think it generally relates to posture or findings on scans and x-rays,’ said Dr Rabey.

‘However, the people who answered our survey showed a greater appreciation of other things that can influence pain than was expected, such as mood, activity levels or sleep.

‘There seemed to be greater than expected openness to tackle these influences upon pain through treatments, such as psychotherapy.’

Previous research carried out in the UK has indicated that as many as one in two people suffer persistent or chronic pain.

It is recognised as a leading cause of disability globally. However, at present, only half of advanced countries have national health policies with a clear focus on preventing and managing musculoskeletal pain.

Authors of the local study obtained approval from Guernsey’s Ethics Committee in 2018. They published their findings last month.

‘Pain is a complex problem that is influenced by many interacting factors,’ said Dr Rabey, who now lectures at Curtin University in Western Australia.

‘Clinicians working with people with pain can take heart that people are likely to be open to a broad range of treatments aimed at those different factors, like improving their activity levels, getting better sleep, helping low mood or anxiety, as well as considering biomedical factors, such as posture, muscle strength or inflammation.’

• The study was published open access and is therefore free to read. It is available here. Funding for the research was provided by the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in the UK.