Management of Low Back Pain: Do Physiotherapists Know the Evidence-Based Guidelines?

Int J Environ Res Public Health

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy (MOVANT), University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium.

Published: April 2023

Background: Clinical practice guidelines promote bio-psychosocial management of patients suffering from low back pain (LBP). The objective of this study was to examine the current knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of physiotherapists about a guideline-adherent approach to LBP and to assess the ability of physiotherapists to recognise signs of a specific LBP in a clinical vignette.

Methods: Physiotherapists were recruited to participate in an online study. They were asked to indicate whether they were familiar with evidence-based guidelines and then to fill in the Health Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS), Back Pain Attitudes Questionnaire (Back-PAQ), Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire (NPQ), as well as questions related to two clinical vignettes.

Results: In total, 527 physiotherapists participated in this study. Only 38% reported being familiar with guidelines for the management of LBP. Sixty-three percent of the physiotherapists gave guideline-inconsistent recommendations regarding work. Only half of the physiotherapists recognised the signs of a specific LBP.

Conclusions: The high proportion of physiotherapists unfamiliar with guidelines and demonstrating attitudes and beliefs not in line with evidence-based management of LBP is concerning. It is crucial to develop efficient strategies to enhance knowledge of guidelines among physiotherapists and increase their implementation in clinical practice.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10178177PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20095611DOI Listing

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