Development of a theory- and evidence-based intervention to enhance implementation of physical therapy guidelines for the management of low back pain.

Background: Systematic planning could improve the generally moderate effectiveness of interventions to enhance adherence to clinical practice guidelines. The aim of our study was to demonstrate how the process of Intervention Mapping was used to develop an intervention to address the lack of adherence to the national CPG for low back pain by Dutch physical therapists.

Methods: We systematically developed a program to improve adherence to the Dutch physical therapy guidelines for low back pain.

A qualitative application of the diffusion of innovations theory to examine determinants of guideline adherence among physical therapists.

Background: Evidence-based practice has become a major issue in physical therapy. Many evidence-based guidelines, however, are not used extensively after dissemination, and interventions aimed at increasing guideline adherence often have limited effects.

Objective: As a prerequisite for changing this situation, the aims of this study were to gain an in-depth understanding of the determinants of guideline adherence among physical therapists in the Netherlands and to evaluate the opportunities of a theoretical framework in this respect.