A sense of increased living space after participating in multimodal rehabilitation

The aim was to explore and describe experiences of change related to multimodal rehabilitation (MMR) in participants suffering from persistent musculoskeletal-related pain, in order to increase knowledge about the impact of the rehabilitation.

Participants in MMR from an outpatient rehabilitation unit in primary care in Sweden were recruited for interviews about any kind of change they experienced that they thought were related to their participation in the MMR. Systematic text condensation according to Malterud was used to analyze the data.

A total of 14 participants were interviewed. The interview analysis resulted in four categories in which the participants described their experience of change related to the MMR: a new desire for participation, increased embodied knowledge, a stronger sense of feeling empowered and regained hope. The categories interacted and from these categories, one theme emerged: a sense of increased living space.

According to these results, it is important to have various entrances to enhance change and to be aware of how these changes interact and can reinforce each other in order to facilitate the participants' empowerment processes toward a sense of increased living space. Implications for rehabilitation The efforts in MMR should be coordinated to be mutually reinforcing as changes in one area could facilitate in others and thus facilitate the participants' empowerment processes. Participants experience change after MMR in areas that standardized assessment questionnaires do not capture and consequently it would be useful to let the participants answer an open question about perceived changes together with standardized questionnaires.