Adaptations to pain rehabilitation programmes for non-native patients with chronic pain

• Published in: Disability and rehabilitation 2011, Vol.33 (15-16), p.1324-1329
• Main Authors: Sloots, Maurits, Dekker, Jos H. M., Bartels, Edien A. C., Geertzen, Jan Henricus, Dekker, Joost
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptation, Psychological; Chronic Disease; Chronic pain; Consultation; Cultural Characteristics; Electronic mail systems; Emigrants and Immigrants; Female; Health Plan Implementation; Hospitals; Humans; Logistic Models; Low Back Pain - diagnosis; Low Back Pain - ethnology; Low Back Pain - rehabilitation; Male; Minority Health; Multivariate Analysis; Netherlands; Pain - diagnosis; Pain - ethnology; Pain - rehabilitation; Physician-Patient Relations; Program Evaluation; Quality of Health Care; Rehabilitation; Rehabilitation Centers - organization & administration; Risk Assessment; Socioeconomic Factors; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0963-8288; 1464-5165
• DOI: 10.3109/09638288.2010.529236

Purpose. (i) To determine whether adaptations for non-native patients have been implemented in pain rehabilitation programmes; (ii) to determine whether characteristics of the rehabilitation institute are related to having adaptations for non-native patients in place. Subjects. Rehabilitation institutes and rehabilitation departments of general hospitals in The Netherlands who offer a pain rehabilitation programme. Method. A questionnaire was handed over in person or by e-mail to the rehabilitation physicians of the participating institutes. Twenty-seven (90%%) questionnaires were returned. The questionnaire concerned programme adaptations and institute characteristics. The data were analysed by χ2 tests or Fischer's exact tests and logistic regression analysis. Results. Twelve institutes (44.4%%) reported having adaptations in place for non-native patients in their pain rehabilitation programme. The most common adaptations were as follows: increased number of consultations (25.9%% of the institutes); longer consultations (25.9%%) and education for employees regarding cultural competency (11.1%%). Institutes which treated a high percentage (≥11%%) of non-native patients had implemented significantly more frequently adaptations to their rehabilitation programme (p  ==  0.04). The number of adaptations was neither associated with the proportion of non-native citizens in the local population nor with the number of the institutes' employees. Conclusion. Less than half of the institutes had implemented one or more programme adaptations for non-native patients. Institutes which had made adaptations to their rehabilitation programme treated more non-native patients.