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As Hill et al. point out in their powerful paper [1], there is often a difference between objective clinical and radiographic evidence of musculoskeletal disease activity or severity and the experience of pain, other symptoms and functional ability reported by the patient. For the patient, the greatest impact of the disease lies in the effect it has on their ability to continue with a ‘normal’daily life and this will necessarily be their focus of interest. It is, however, increasingly important for us as researchers and healthcare professionals to understand how the perceptions, experience and impact of having a musculoskeletal condition might influence a patient’s interpretation and response to it, so that we, in turn, can respond more appropriately. The model used by Hill et al. in their paper [1] to investigate these issues is varyingly known as the Illness Perceptions Model, the Illness Representations Model, the Self-Regulatory Model …