Factor Analysis of Attributed Influence Factors
(Independent Variables)
Factor analysis identified five factors in the list of 20 causes, which together explained 67% of the total variance. Cronbach’s α coefficients indicate satisfactory consistency (ranging from 0.69-0.79) of the resulting item sets for each factor. Two items, “Ample sleep” and “My personal susceptibility,” both from the question on long-time influence factors, could not be subsumed to any of the factors and are excluded from further analysis. Table 2 shows the items, the labels given to the factor loadings retained for analysis if >0.4 (except for one item included in Factor 5).
Seven items load on the first factor. They include psychological or emotional matters on the job and at home, and the items on mood, fate, fatigue and the full moon, which are all related with mood. Therefore the factor is labeled “Emotion and mood”. All the items belonging to this factor were overall rated as weak forces on the course of respondents’ back pain.
The second factor includes long-term pressure on the job and short-term unusual physical strain there. It is termed “Job stress.” The third factor unites draughts and the weather, and we use the latter as label. The fourth factor collects items on the influence of one’s physician on one’s back pain. One item is physician-centered (competence), the other patient-centered (regularity of consultation).
A third physician-related item (adherence to therapy) loads stronger on the fifth factor, which foremost considers physical exercise. The adherence item is well placed there as therapy suggestions are likely to have included instructions on physical activity. We label the scale “Considerate physical activity,” and aside from the exercise and adherence items, those on wrong movement or posture and on recognizing one’s limits belong here, thus including not only exercise but also attention to one’s movements beyond exercise.
The ascribed causes, respectively the factors, vary with regard to alterability; some can be willingly influenced, others cannot. “Considerate physical activity” is almost completely under control of the patient, while the weather is completely beyond his or her control. Between these poles, control is relatively high for “Physician’s influence” as a patient has more or less complete.