Athletes’ beliefs about persistent pain – a qualitative study

Abstract

Despite the growing body of pain management literature, and recommendations that a biopsychosocial approach to pain management should be applied, sports medicine is still often guided by a biomedical approach. Research is indicating that beliefs about pain play an important role when pain persists. In recent years, an increasing amount of qualitative research on different sub-groups like women or men, and their beliefs about pain have been published. However, there is a gap in knowledge about what athletes (defined as individuals participating at a minimum of 8 hours per week training and/or competing in a registered sport) believe in pain, although pain have a higher impact on these individuals’ life as non-athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate what beliefs athletes have about persistent and non-traumatic pain. Six athletes (two females) were recruited to participate in one semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed with content analysis and an abductive approach. Five themes emerged, based on the common-sense model of self-regulation, and 14 categories. The result from this study indicate that athletes have biomedical beliefs, pain is a consequence of abnormalities in the body´s structure and function, and that the future is uncertain. To conclude, there is no major differences between athletes and a general population when it comes to their beliefs about pain. The result from this study supports the recommendations to apply a biopsychosocial approach to pain management in sport medicine.