Do physical therapists recognise established risk factors? Swedish physical therapists’ evaluation in comparison to guidelines

Background and purpose The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care has widely distributed the most recent Swedish evidence-based review on neck and back pain. In this review psychosocial factors were acknowledged as important risk factors for developing chronic pain. We surveyed physical therapists’ evaluation of risk factors for the development of chronic pain. The results were compared to the review of the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care.

Methods A postal questionnaire was sent to all 117 physical therapists working in primary care in Örebro County, Sweden.

Results The survey was responded to by 102 physical therapists (87%). Over 50% of them indicated as important more than twice as many risk factors than are supported by the evidence-based review.

Conclusions Physical therapists represented by this sample were well aware of the importance of psychosocial risk factors, but because of the large number of additional factors indicated it seems physical therapists lack specificity about which factors are important.