Papers of the Week

Most cases of low back pain (LBP) are regarded as non-specific and current studies indicate that for many this is a chronic recurrent condition, in which people experience episodes of pain with symptom-free periods in between. It is likely that acute exposure to some factors triggers the reappearance of new episodes in recurrent LBP regardless of the causality of the underlying condition (i.e. risk factors). Additionally, it has been shown that LBP patients present with different trajectories and different trajectories possibly have different triggers. Hence, dividing patients into some clinically meaningful subgroups may offer new insights into triggers, effective preventive strategies and, therefore, prognosis. This study aims to identify self-reported triggers and trajectories of episodes of recurrent LBP and to examine the prognostic association between different triggers and LBP trajectories.