What Are Persistent Lower Back Pain Patients' Views of Sleep Health Within an Outpatient

Background:Approximately one third of western populations suffer from sleep disturbance at least once a week and with 6-10% meeting the threshold of insomnia (National Institute of Clinical Excellence, 2022). The estimated population of the United Kingdom (UK) affected by insomnia is 37% (Morphy et al., 2007). Diminished sleep is associated with increased pain perceptions, reduced pain thresholds, physical activity levels, immune function, cognition and quality of life. Moreover, a lack of sleep correlates with increased prevalence of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, and mortality (Medi, Wille & Hemels, 2017).

Over 90% of patients with Persistent Lower Back Pain (PLBP) receiving physiotherapy are affected by sleep disturbance (Roseen et al., 2020).Conventional Physiotherapy rehabilitation has shown effective in improving sleep quality in patients with PLBP as measured via Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). However, Eadie et al. (2013) & Roseen et al., (2020). There is a paucity of research exploring Physiotherapies role within sleep health. Equally, studies specific to Physiotherapies role are mainly reviewed from the clinician's perspective, with a scarceness of studies providing insight into the patient perspective. To date, no studies have canvassed the opinion of patients in Physiotherapy care on the profession's role in sleep health, creating a strong footing for the proposed investigation Physiotherapist place a high value on the importance of sleep health but struggle to provide inventions citing a lack of training, resource and time. The evidence based is heavily survey based and of a quantitative nature, lacking explanation of why barriers exist, warranting further qualitative investigation (Caudwell et al. 2020 and Siengsukon, Nelson & Turkowitch 2023)

It is unclear how PLBP patients with sleep disturbance want to utilize their time in Physiotherapy care and their perceptions of Physiotherapies role within the management of sleep health (Siengsukon, Nelson & Turkowitch 2023). The proposed study would be the first to be conducted in the UK, examining PLBP patients' expectations of sleep health management within outpatient MSK physiotherapy setting.

Design and Methods:Qualitative in nature, via individual semi-structured interviews, will allow the study to explore participants' feelings and beliefs (De Jonckheere & Vaughn, 2019). The study topic is novel in design and will allow the capture of rich data and themes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), current evidence base lacks qualitative data, especially from a patient perspective(Caudwell et al. 2020).

Recruitment and Sample Size: Recruitment will occur until the point of data saturation is reached and new themes have stopped emerging. Dickerson, Klingman & Jungquist (2016) comparable study found that interviewing 29 participants on the "Common meanings of good and bad sleep" met saturation point. Given their much wider focus, it is anticipated that interviewing 8-12 participants would meet data saturation in the proposed study. This will be reviewed for adequacy concurrently with data collection (De Jonckheere & Vaughn 2019 and Malterud, Siersma & Guassora, 2016).