Abstract
BackgroundAmong current musculoskeletal interventions used to treat low back pain (LBP), physiotherapy exercise has the highest evidence of effectiveness in avoiding recurrence and chronic disability. However, effectiveness of physiotherapy is thought to be directly related to the patients' adherence to physiotherapy. Since adherence is reported to be directly influenced by socio-cultural factors, this study was conducted to investigate factors related to patients' adherence in a group of Saudi female patients with LBP.MethodsA retrospective chart review was conducted on female LBP patients referred to the department of physiotherapy at a local tertiary hospital over a 12 month period. A total of 98 charts were reviewed. Two physiotherapists specialized in musculoskeletal rehabilitation collected information from the medical files. Data were classified in three categories: patients' personal demographics, patients' medical condition and history, and type of physiotherapy administered. Contingency tables and chi-square test were computed to test for differences in proportions. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was calculated to examine relationships among variables.ResultsSubjects who attended their scheduled appointments were classified as adherent (40%), and those who failed to attend 2 consecutive scheduled appointments and got discharged were classified as non-adherent (60%). Factors that significantly correlated with adherence included: age (r = 0.7, p < 0.05), initial pain intensity (r = 0.5, p < 0.05), and subjective report of improvement (r = 0.7, p < 0.01). Adherence did not correlate with the type of LBP, patient occupation, experience or nationality of the physiotherapist.ConclusionThis study reveals an alarming level of non-adherence to physiotherapy among patients with LBP. It remains unclear as to what level of adherence is required to achieve beneficial effect of treatment. It is quite evident however, that early withdrawal from treatment would not allow the therapeutic benefits of the treatment to be realized. Future research should be directed toward developing strategies to improve adherence.
Highlights
Among current musculoskeletal interventions used to treat low back pain (LBP), physiotherapy exercise has the highest evidence of effectiveness in avoiding recurrence and chronic disability
Among current musculoskeletal interventions used to treat LBP, exercise has the highest evidence of effectiveness in avoiding chronic disability and preventing recurrence [12]
The high level of non-adherence in our study is consistent with an earlier study which reported that only 44% of patients completed their scheduled course of physiotherapy [29]
Summary
Among current musculoskeletal interventions used to treat low back pain (LBP), physiotherapy exercise has the highest evidence of effectiveness in avoiding recurrence and chronic disability. Low back pain (LBP) is considered a major health problem due to its high prevalence [1,2], high probability of recurrence [3], and associated disability [4]. Among current musculoskeletal interventions used to treat LBP, exercise has the highest evidence of effectiveness in avoiding chronic disability and preventing recurrence [12]. Effectiveness of physiotherapy is thought to be directly related to the patients' adherence or compliance with the therapy regimen [14,15]. The term "adherence" is considered synonymous with "compliance" in the majority of studies [18,19,20]
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