TY - JOUR T1 - Mass media campaigns are needed to counter misconceptions about back pain and promote higher value care JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 1261 LP - 1262 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099691 VL - 53 IS - 20 AU - Mary O’Keeffe AU - Chris G Maher AU - Tasha R Stanton AU - Neil E O’Connell AU - Sameer Deshpande AU - Douglas P Gross AU - Kieran O’Sullivan Y1 - 2019/10/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/20/1261.abstract N2 - Back pain is saddled by misconceptions that contribute to low-value care and poor outcomes. Many patients and clinicians mistakenly view the spine as fragile, believe that pain equates to damage and overemphasise the role and value of rest, imaging, medication and surgery.1 Guideline-based care will not be embraced if such misconceptions are not countered. Here, we provide four arguments for accessible, engaging and convincing education to the public and health professionals.The ‘Back Pain: Don’t Take it Lying Down’ media campaign in Victoria, Australia, aired in the late 1990s and aimed to shift public attitudes about what to do when you experience back pain.2 Television (TV) advertisements were aired for the first 12 months and again for the final 3 months of the 3-year period. There were substantial improvements in workers’ compensation costs (15% reduction in the number of claims), as well as back pain beliefs, disability and medical management by the end of the campaign. Variants of this campaign have been repeated elsewhere, with observed improvements in pain beliefs.3 … ER -