This study shows that physiotherapists may have underdeveloped skills when it comes to performing risk stratification and identifying psychological factors related to chronic low back pain (CLBP).
Although this was a single-center study involving only 49 patients with CLBP, risk allocation was done correctly only in less than half the patients.
Additionally, correlations between therapist perceptions and patient-filled questionnaires regarding distress, depression, anxiety and kinesiophobia went from moderate to nonexistent.
Physiotherapists showed unsatisfactory (41%) accuracy in allocating patients into risk stratification groups or identifying psychological factors.
Patient-reported distress was found to be a negative predictor of therapist self-reported competence in managing CLBP.
These results show better therapist training is needed to deal with this population.
> From: Brenner et al., Phys Ther 98 (2018) 471-479 (Epub ahead of print). All rights reserved to Oxford University Press. Click here for the online summary.