The usefulness of the STarT back screening tool and single-item general health measures when predicting future disability in patients with low back pain treated in Danish primary care physiotherapy.

Introduction: The extent to which disease specific screening tools or other health measures add to the predictive value of common clinical factors (pain, disability and socio-demographics) has been sparsely investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a disease specific screening tool and a single-item general health measure adds predictive value to basic information collected in primary physiotherapy care when predicting future disability in patients with low back pain.

Material And Methods: This longitudinal cohort study included 354 patients with low back pain from Danish primary care physiotherapy.

Cohort profile: Design and implementation of the Danish Physiotherapy Research Database for patients receiving primary care with chronic disease.

Purpose: Free of charge physiotherapy (FCP) is free physiotherapy provided by the Danish government for patients with a range of chronic diseases. To date, the population has not been described in depth making evaluation and decision making difficult. The purpose of this study was to (1) describe the development and the content of a novel clinical physiotherapy database for FCP (PhysDB-FCP) and (2) present the cohort profile based on the data collected.

Incidence of Free of Charge Physiotherapy in a Danish National Cohort of Stroke, Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients.

Background: Denmark is a welfare state with a publically funded healthcare system that includes the right to free of charge physiotherapy (FCP) for patients with chronic or progressive disease who fulfill strict criteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of referral to FCP in patients with a hospital diagnosis of stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) between 2007 and 2016.

Methods: The study was register-based and included data from The Danish National Patient Registry and The National Health Service Registry.

Responsiveness and minimal important change for the quick-DASH in patients with shoulder disorders.

Background: Responsiveness and minimal important change (MIC) are central measurement properties when interpreting scores from health questionnaires. The aim of the study was to evaluate the responsiveness and MIC of the Danish version of the shortened version the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire (Quick-DASH) in patients with shoulder disorders referred to primary care physiotherapy treatment.

Methods: The study included 261 patients who completed questionnaires at baseline and 3 and 6 months follow up.

The effectiveness of a stratified care model for non-specific low back pain in Danish primary care compared to current practice: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Prior studies indicate that stratified care for low back pain results in better clinical outcome and reduced costs in healthcare compared to current practice. Stratified care may be associated with clinical benefits for patients with low back pain at a lower cost, but evidence is sparse. Hence this study aims to evaluate the clinical effects and cost-effectiveness of stratified care in patients with non-specific low back pain compared to current practice.

The smallest worthwhile effect of primary care physiotherapy did not differ across musculoskeletal pain sites.

Objectives: To determine and compare estimates of the smallest worthwhile effect (SWE) for physiotherapy in neck, shoulder, and low-back pain patients and to investigate the influence of sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological factors on these estimates.

Methods: A structured telephone interview was conducted before treatment was commenced in 160 patients referred for primary care physiotherapy. The benefit-harm trade-off method was used to estimate the SWE of physiotherapy for the following outcomes; pain, disability, and time to recovery, compared with the improvement achieved without any treatment (natural course).

Clinical course and prognosis of musculoskeletal pain in patients referred for physiotherapy: does pain site matter?

Background: Danish patients with musculoskeletal disorders are commonly referred for primary care physiotherapy treatment but little is known about their general health status, pain diagnoses, clinical course and prognosis. The objectives of this study were to 1) describe the clinical course of patients with musculoskeletal disorders referred to physiotherapy, 2) identify predictors associated with a satisfactory outcome, and 3) determine the influence of the primary pain site diagnosis relative to those predictors.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of patients (n = 2,706) newly referred because of musculoskeletal pain to 30 physiotherapy practices from January 2012 to May 2012.