1University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics & Technology, Institute for Human and Economic Sciences, Eduard Wallnöfer-Zentrum 1, A-6060 Hall in Tirol, Austria.
2Medical University of Innsbruck, Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Schöpfstrasse 41/1, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Non-specific low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem. There are no national guidelines in Austria for the treatment of this complaint and previous studies have shown that there is little standardisation of its physiotherapeutic treatment in Austria. We therefore chose the Dutch guidelines for LBP as a basis and investigated the extent to which treatment of this complaint by Austrian physiotherapists adheres to the recommendations of these guidelines. The present study involves the evaluation of written documentation of two cases of non-specific LBP in patients (one male and one female) over 18 years of age submitted by each of 74 Austrian physiotherapists. Our results show that in respect of the number of treatment sessions, the treatment goals, and interventions, the extent to which the Dutch guideline recommendations are fulfilled corresponds with data gathered in the Netherlands. For the Austrian setting the data suggest a statistically significant correlation between the preference for active therapeutic techniques by the physiotherapists and adherence to central recommendations of the Dutch guidelines. Nonetheless, the results of this study reveal that the Austrian situation is still in need of improvement.
low back pain, guideline adherence, physiotherapy
