Attitudes and beliefs of Brazilian physical therapists about chronic nonspecific low back pain and its impact on clinical decision-making: An Online Survey Study.

Introduction: Recent clinical practice guidelines recognize the importance of the biopsychosocial model in the management of patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain, and the attitudes and beliefs of physical therapists are believed to directly influence clinical decision-making.

Objective: To investigate factors associated to biomedical and biopsychosocial approaches and its impact on attitudes and beliefs to treat patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted online with 302 Brazilian physiotherapists who treat patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain. The HC-PAIRS and PABS-PT were used to investigate attitudes and beliefs low back pain. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were performed for association tests, comparing the scores on the scales between groups. In addition, multiple linear regression analyses were also used.

Results: The overall mean score of HC-PAIRS was 54.0 (9.0), and the biomedical and biopsychosocial factors of PABS-PT were 29.7 (9.0) and 36.2 (5.3), respectively. Significant associations were identified between gender (p = 0.04) and level of academic training (p < 0.00) and both scales, HC-PAIRS and PABSPT, respectively.

Conclusion: Sociodemographic characteristics were associated with the beliefs of physical therapists; a higher score for treatment options for chronic low back pain based on the biomedical mode, was observed in female physiotherapist and in physios with higher education level. Variables such as age and length of professional experience indicated that the lower the age and/or length of professional experience of Brazilian physical therapists, the stronger the belief in the relationship between low back pain and tissue damage.