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. 2024 Feb 29;32(1):7.
doi: 10.1186/s12998-024-00530-7.

Attitudes, beliefs, and recommendations for persistent low back pain patients: cross-sectional surveys of students and faculty at a chiropractic college

Ryan D Muller  1   2   3 , Jesse Cooper  4 , Jordan A Gliedt  5 , Katherine A Pohlman  6
Affiliations

Attitudes, beliefs, and recommendations for persistent low back pain patients: cross-sectional surveys of students and faculty at a chiropractic college

Ryan D Muller et al. Chiropr Man Therap. .

Abstract

Background: While the use of chiropractic care for persistent low back pain (PLBP) is prevalent, chiropractors' attitudes and beliefs related to PLBP patients are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes, beliefs and activity/work recommendations of students and faculty at a chiropractic college regarding PLBP patients.

Methods: The Health Care Providers Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS) and clinical vignettes were requested to be completed by chiropractic students and faculty at Parker University in April 2018. Higher HC-PAIRS scores indicate stronger beliefs that PLBP justifies disability and limitation of activities. Activity and work recommendations from clinical vignettes were rated as "adequate", "neutral", or "inadequate", as defined in previous literature. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and logistic regression were used to analyze results.

Results: Student and faculty response rates were 63.6% and 25.9%, respectively. Faculty mean HC-PAIRS scores (3.66 [SD:0.88]) were significantly lower than students' (4.41 [SD:0.71]). The percentage of faculty providing "adequate" activity (62.1%) and work (41.0%) recommendations was significantly greater than the percentage of students (activity: 33.9%, work: 21.2%) (p < 0.05). Higher HC-PAIRS scores in students were associated with decreased odds of providing "adequate" activity and work recommendations.

Conclusions: Student and faculty attitudes and beliefs, and students' activity/work recommendations were found to be dissimilar to those from similar studies and less congruent with CPG recommendations. Lower HC-PAIRS scores increased the odds of students providing "adequate" activity and work recommendations to patients with PLBP. Results from this study may help guide future research and training opportunities.

Keywords: Activity and work recommendations; Chiropractic; Healthcare providers’ pain and impairment relationship scale; Persistent low back Pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Students’ Mean HC-PAIRS Scores by Term. HC-PAIRS: Healthcare Providers Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale. The solid black line represents scores in 2018, while the dotted black line represents scores in 2020
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean percentage of students and faculty providing adequate, neutral, and inadequate activity recommendations. Black shading represents the percentage of adequate, dark gray represents the percentage of neutral, and light gray represents the percentage of inadequate activity recommendations given for each population
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mean percentage of students and faculty providing adequate, neutral, and inadequate work recommendations. Black shading represents the percentage of adequate, dark gray represents the percentage of neutral, and light gray represents the percentage of inadequate activity recommendations given for each population
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Students’ activity and work recommendations vs. literature [26, 29]. Chiro: chiropractors; PT: physical therapists; Medical: medical doctors. Gray shading represents the mean percentage of students that gave adequate activity recommendations. Black shading represents the mean percentage of students that gave adequate work recommendations
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Faculty’s activity and work recommendations vs. literature [33, 34]. HCP: Healthcare providers. Gray shading represents the mean percentage of faculty and professionals that gave adequate activity recommendations. Black shading represents the mean percentage of faculty and professionals that gave adequate work recommendations
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