Assessing Patients’ Perceptions of Self-Healing for Musculoskeletal Pain: A Global Survey Study

Pre-concept exposure, patients were cognizant of the side effects of pain medications and wanted to reduce reliance on them. Alternative treatments such as acupuncture and infra-red therapies inspired less confidence and agreement about their effectiveness. However, post-concept exposure, there was a slight increase in confidence and agreement across all statements and all countries. Time, cost, and effort required for these treatments to be effective were identified as major barriers to adopting them. Cluster analysis categorized patients into four clusters based on their age, gender, pain (course, severity, interference) and their belief in pain resolution or healing. Their perceptions were driven by factors such as a belief in drug-free and holistic methods, the multifactorial nature of pain, drawbacks of self-efficacy of drug-free therapies, limitations of pain medications, doubt in self-healing/devices and minimal side effects of drug-free therapy. However, the factors varied among patient clusters.