The Impact of Chronic Low Back Pain on Driving
Most adults around the country take driving for granted. It’s something they do on a regular basis, whether it’s just to go to work or to run errands and do the grocery shopping. But for the millions of people who suffer from chronic low back pain, driving may pose some challenges. This is exactly what researchers set out to explore in a recent study.
In the February 2021 issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Pain
Researchers took a look at driving with chronic pain (1). Noting that driving is something regularly done and that it is a part of life for people in the U.S., they wanted to see what characterized the driving experience of people who experience chronic low back pain. Their study focused on psychology, catastrophizing, affective responses, and self-reported driving behaviors and outcomes.
For the study, they surveyed over 300 patients in the U.S. who have recurring chronic low back pain and who drive regularly.
What Information they’ve gathered:
- Their experience with driving with pain
- Behaviors and violations
- If they avoided driving due to the pain,
- Opioid usage
- Using pain medications while driving
- If they had any collisions within the last three years.
They found that there was a significant positive association with the psychological factors of driving in pain. These include pain catastrophizing and pain intensity. Many people who have chronic low back pain find it difficult to stay focused while driving, or they may take pain medication prior to getting behind the wheel. Their results also showed a statistically significant relationship with pain intensity :
- While driving
- Responses to driving in pain
- Driving violations
- Driving avoidance due to the pain.
Results also showed that participants who had a collision within the prior three years also reported greater pain exaggeration and thought distractions.
This new research sheds light on an important issue that many people with chronic low back pain experience, especially considering that the problems with driving in pain can lead to accidents. They still need to be able to go where they need to be, but the pain can cause problems with their driving abilities, and they may even avoid driving altogether because of it. Those working with chronic low back pain patients may want to discuss it with them, so that arrangements can be made to drive them somewhere if they feel they are having difficulties with it on their own.
Source:
Scandinavian Journal of Pain. When driving hurts: characterizing the experience and impact of driving with back pain. February 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33641275/
