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Back Pain: Don't Take It Lying Down (Victoria)

Also: Back pain: don't take it lying down

“Back pain: don't take it lying down”

Victorian WorkCover Authority mass media campaign (1997-1999) telling people with back pain to stay active and keep working rather than rest. It aimed to change public and GP beliefs and cut disability and compensation costs.

Years
1997–1999
Country
Australia
Topic
Low value careMusculoskeletal
Asks people to
StartSubstitute
Strategy
CelebritySimple instruction
Channel
OutdoorPrintRadioTV
Audience
AdultsClinicians
General population of Victoria and their GPs.

Evidence

Quasi-experimentalPositive

Before-after surveys with New South Wales as control (4,730 public, 2,556 GPs): back pain beliefs improved in Victoria (Back Beliefs score +3.2 by the third survey) and among doctors, with a clear decline in workers' compensation claims for back pain, days compensated and medical costs (Buchbinder 2001). GP improvements persisted 4.5 years after the campaign ended (Buchbinder 2007).

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Victorian WorkCover Authority Foreign government, funder

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Buchbinder R, Jolley D, Wyatt M. Population based intervention to change back pain beliefs and disability: three part evaluation. BMJ 2001;322:1516 evaluation · 2001 · DOI 10.1136/bmj.322.7301.1516 · PMID 11420272
  2. Buchbinder R, Jolley D, Wyatt M. Effects of a media campaign on back pain beliefs and its potential influence on management of low back pain in general practice. Spine 2001 evaluation · 2001 · DOI 10.1097/00007632-200112010-00005 · PMID 11725233
  3. Buchbinder R, Jolley D. Improvements in general practitioner beliefs and stated management of back pain persist 4.5 years after the cessation of a public health media campaign. Spine 2007 evaluation · 2007 · DOI 10.1097/01.brs.0000256885.00681.00 · PMID 17334277

Research notes

Created 2026-10-22 by OpenAlex literature mining (openalex-deep pass); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Topic tagged low-value-care (bed rest and imaging for back pain) because the taxonomy has no musculoskeletal value; consider adding one. Strategy 'celebrity' and the channel list are from secondary knowledge (the campaign used a well-known rheumatologist and sports figures); confirm. Sponsor confirmed only via a search-result summary (WorkSafeBC/BJSM listing), not an opened page.

Record cases/vic-back-pain-dont-take-it-lying-down.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign