At our general meeting in 2012, the QPRN members stressed the importance of identifying the risk factors underlying the transition from acute to chronic low back pain. This is why the QPRN has stimulated a province-wide project bringing together a dozen researchers: the Quebec Back Pain Consortium.
Low back pain (LBP) is the number one cause of years of disability in the world. Current therapeutic interventions are often inadequate or associated with undesirable consequences.
Our goal and our structure
A better understanding of the risk factors associated with LBP is necessary to improve the quality of life of people with LBP and prevent others from moving on to persistent LBP. It is for this reason that we created the Quebec Back Pain Consortium (Website), an innovative two-level structure to study the transition from acute low back pain to persistent low back pain.
Our goal is to better understand the risk factors that favor the transition from a point-in-time LBP to a LBP that lasts over time. To do this, we have developed a research questionnaire common to all our researchers (published article) in order to be able to connect all of our results. Our researchers include physiotherapists, psychologists and geneticists, and we are fortunate to collaborate with the Provincial Network for Research in Adaptation and Rehabilitation (REPAR).
To reach our goal, we established a recruitment platform allowing all Quebecers to be able to complete our questionnaire and be involved in various research projects of our team (Published article) in relation to LBP (see illustration). All the data collected will help us to understand how to better manage LBP in the Quebec population and thus prevent it from becoming a pain that lasts over time. You can contact us for more information.
The cohort developed by the Consortium brings together more than 6,600 participants living with low back pain. The platform provides various services.
our team
A brand new management team is at the head of the consortium and is made up of Jean-Sébastien Roy, Hugo Massé-Alarie and Carolina B. Meloto. Several new members and student representatives have also joined the multidisciplinary team over the past year. Laurent Dupuis enriches our work by sharing his real-life experience of pain with us. In terms of recruitment, the infrastructure put in place since November 2018 has made it possible to recruit more than 6,600 participants and recruitment has not suffered from the pandemic in 2020.
our newsletter
Our quarterly newsletter is intended for study participants. This describes the progress of the study and shares useful information.
our webinars
Our webinars present our most recent results.
Jean-Sébastien Roy describes the Consortium at the Lunch And Talks (Video)
Jean-Sébastien Roy describes the Consortium to Guylaine Tanguay (Video)
Laura Stone, former director of the consortium, discusses the role of epigenetics in pain in this webinar given at the National Institute of Health (Video).
Gabrielle Pagé presents the establishment of a new satellite project to study the impact of stress from COVID-19 on chronic low back pain (Video).
Consortium 10 year anniversary video (Vidéo)
Mathieu Roy presents his role in the consortium (Vidéo)
Carolina Meloto presents the consortium (Vidéo)
Carolina Meloto presents the Quebec Biobank on Low Back Pain, a satellite project of the the consortium (Vidéo)
Our publications and progress reports
Our team has already published several articles:
Adriana Angarita-Fonseca et al. The Canadian version of the National Institutes of Health minimum dataset for chronic low back pain research : reference values from the Quebec Low Back Pain Study.
Pain journal, February 2023
Hugo Massé-Alarie et al. Low Back Pain definitions : effect on patient inclusion and clinical profiles
PAIN Reports, March 2022
Kristina Amja et al. The Experience of People Living With Chronic Pain During a Pandemic : “Crumbling Dreams With Uncertain Futures”
Qualitative Health Research, June 2021
Gabrielle Pagé et al. The Quebec Low Back Pain Study: a protocol for an innovative 2-tier provincial cohort
PAIN Reports, January 2020
Anaïs Lacasse et al. The Canadian minimum dataset for chronic low back pain research: a cross-cultural adaptation of the National Institutes of Health Task Force Research Standards
CMAJ Open, March 2017
To learn more about our progress, you can consult our 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 progress reports intended for our partners in order to present the major advances of the project.
Press release
Press release
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions about our services.
