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Do patients’ preferences and expectations match clinical guidelines? A survey of individuals seeking private primary care for a musculoskeletal disorder

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posted on 2024-10-14, 06:31 authored by Marc-Olivier DubeMarc-Olivier Dube, Pierre Langevin, Hugo Massé-Alarie, Jean-Francois Esculier, Anthony Lachance, Jean-Sébastien Roy

BACKGROUND: Physiotherapists often inconsistently adhere to clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) when managing musculoskeletal disorders (MSKDs), potentially due to discrepancies between patient-valued interventions and guideline recommendations. Since patients' expectations are important predictors of outcome, this disparity between CPGs recommendations and patient preferences could be problematic for the effective care of MSKDs. 

OBJECTIVES: To assess patients' expectations and preferences for the interventions used in their MSKD management and to establish correspondence rates between patients' preferences and recommendations from CPGs. DESIGN: Survey. 

METHOD: This cross-sectional descriptive study included a survey on sociodemographics, preferences, and expectations towards interventions for their MSKD, acceptable cost of care, number of treatment sessions required, and their involvement in their MSKD management. 

RESULTS: One hundred and fifty participants (94 women and 56 men; mean age: 51 ± 17) responded to the survey. Eighty percent of respondents expected their involvement in their MSKD management to be equal to or superior than that of the physiotherapist. Sixty-nine percent of respondents expected to receive exercises, and 67% expected to receive education. Based on preference ratings, 95% of respondents chose recommended interventions, 57% chose interventions with uncertain levels of recommendation, and 48% chose interventions not recommended by CPGs. 

CONCLUSION: Less than 70% of participants expected to receive education and exercises, the two most frequently recommended interventions by CPGs. On the other hand, the majority of respondents indicated that their involvement should be equal to or superior than that of the physiotherapist. This aligns with CPGs, which advocate for active and self-management strategies.

Funding

MOD received a Doctoral Training Scholarship and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fonds de Recherche Qu´ebec-Sant´e (FRQ-S). JSR and HMA are supported by salary awards from FRQ-S.

History

Publication Date

2024-11-01

Journal

Musculoskeletal Science and Practice

Volume

74

Article Number

103195

Pagination

8p.

Publisher

Elsevier

ISSN

2468-8630

Rights Statement

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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