Trial reportBMJ open2023
Lived experience of people with lateral elbow tendinopathy: a qualitative study from the OPTimisE pilot and feasibility trial.
Trial report in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the Beliefs, Perceptions, and Experiences of Individuals With Tendinopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Ethnography of Qualitative Studies.Physical therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Optimising physiotherapy for people with lateral elbow tendinopathy - Results of a mixed-methods pilot and feasibility randomised controlled trial (OPTimisE).Musculoskeletal science & practice · 2024Trial
- Sleep quality and nocturnal pain in patients with elbow disorders: a prospective multicenter study.Journal of orthopaedics and traumatology : official journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology · 2026Observational
- Physiotherapists' use of outcome measures in the assessment of lateral elbow tendinopathy: An international online survey.Shoulder & elbow · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo explore the lived experience of people with lateral elbow tendinopathy (LET) and its impact on everyday life.
designQualitative semi-structured interviews, analysed using thematic analysis.
settingConducted as part of the mixed-methods OPTimisE pilot and feasibility randomised controlled trial of outpatient physiotherapy patients in the UK.
participants17 participants with LET, purposively sampled from the trial to provide representativeness based on age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation index and treatment allocation.
resultsFour themes were identified from the participants' responses: (1) cause of onset-typically symptoms were attributed to: sudden changes in activity, repetitive work or compensating for other musculoskeletal conditions; (2) impact on everyday life-which included substantial impacts on quality-of-life, particularly due to pain disturbing sleep and difficulties performing daily tasks (related to work and hobbies) due to pain, although most reported being able to persevere with work; (3) self-help and understanding of the condition-with uncertainty about the appropriateness and potential harm of online advice and confusion from the diagnostic term 'Tennis Elbow' that non-sporting individuals struggled to relate to; (4) healthcare experiences-the treatments received were highly variable and often perceived as ineffectual.
conclusionsFor the first time, the lived experience of people from a range of backgrounds suffering from LET has been explored. Findings suggest that people frequently related the cause to a specific activity. They reported substantial impacts on daily tasks, sleep, work and hobbies. People also reported hesitancy to trust online information without formal healthcare advice, were confused by the common label of 'Tennis Elbow', and perceived the wide array of healthcare treatment options they had received to offer false hope and be largely ineffective. This study provides stimulus for clinicians to consider the advice and treatment provided, and whether the messages conveyed reflect the favourable natural history of the condition. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN64444585.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.