Developing a Contextual Model towards Understanding Low Back Pain

Recent advances in mobile computing and sensor technology have provided new opportunities in data collection and analysis, especially in the medical fields of research. Low back pain is a key area within chronic pain management. It is a widespread problem and a major contributor towards disability worldwide. Researchers have concluded that pain can be an individualistic experience. Evidence from other fields of research show that studying the context of the phenomena can allow for a better understanding of its nature. Existing studies may not consider the full context of the patients’ pain, and collect data infrequently (e.g. monthly or yearly). An explanation for this could be due to the cost and difficulty of collecting such data in the past. In this research, we propose a descriptive contextual model that extends a current low back pain model, with contextual attributes and factors. The goal of this research is to provide researchers with a descriptive contextual classification of variables into their respective factors, and to guide future studies in collecting such data, by utilizing advances in mobile and sensor technology.