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Attitudes and Beliefs of Primary Care Physicians Working in Saudi Arabia Regarding the Management of Low Back Pain: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare professionals’ beliefs and attitudes towards low back pain management play a significant role during treatment. This is a crucial aspect of primary care physicians working as a first point of contact for people seeking healthcare for low back pain. AIM: To identify the belie...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alhowimel, Ahmed S, Alotaibi, Mazyad A, Alamam, Dalyah M, Alodaibi, Faris A, Fritz, Julie M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8728917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35002292
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S343775
Descripción
Sumario:INTRODUCTION: Healthcare professionals’ beliefs and attitudes towards low back pain management play a significant role during treatment. This is a crucial aspect of primary care physicians working as a first point of contact for people seeking healthcare for low back pain. AIM: To identify the beliefs and behaviors of frontline healthcare professionals (primary care physicians) working in the Riyadh region with regard to low back pain management. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was implemented, in which the Pain Attitude and Beliefs Scale (PABS) questionnaire was used along with a low back pain clinical vignette with some questions. The PABS assesses healthcare provider orientations toward low back pain with two subscales: biomedical and behavioral. In total, 400 primary care physicians working in the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia were invited to participate. RESULTS: The responding primary care physicians (n = 72, response rate = 18%) provided an average score on the behavioral subscale (mean = 31.5±7.1) that was lower than that on the biomedical subscale (36.5±7.8) of the PABS. The lower scores in the biomedical subscale are associated with the using of clinical guidelines for low back pain management (χ(2) (1) = 4.7, p = 0.03). Moreover, providing guideline-based advices regarding activity and work was more likely to come from those scoring above the mean in the behavioral subscale. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that Saudi Arabian primary care physicians manage their patients within a biomedical framework; there is some compliance to the current low back pain clinical guidelines among these physicians, with under/post-graduate education being needed for these professionals to adopt a more biopsychosocial framework during low back pain management.