AB116. 218. Patient’s perceptions of green exercise, in the setting of back pain

Background: Green exercise, defined as exercising in nature, demonstrates mental and physical health benefits. Our objective was to investigate back pain patient’s perceptions of Green Exercise and the possible facilitators and barriers that may arise in employing it as part of their treatment regime.

Methods: After institutional ethics committee approval a convenience sample of 100 adult patients who suffer from chronic back pain were included. Participants completed a questionnaire that included a variety of questions with responses reported using a Likert scale.

Results: The most frequent age reported was 50–70 years in 48% of respondents; 92% of participants reported that nature improves their mood; 72% of participants reported that green spaces were easily accessible to them on a regular basis. However, up to 29% reported that they would not be able to commit to three times a week of a green exercise regime. The majority (67% of participants) reported that they would like healthcare practitioners to discuss green exercise with them.

Conclusions: Patients who suffer from back pain would be interested in Green Exercise as part of their treatment regime. Barriers that were identified included proximity to outdoor locations, time availability and the physical ability to exercise. Physicians should consider Green Exercise as a possible part of a chronic back pain treatment plan and future studies should be directed to evaluating its efficacy in chronic back pain.

Keywords: Green exercise; chronic pain; activity