2.5. Practice pattern
Eighteen interventions were included in this study (list of the
interventions are in Table 1). We evaluated practice patterns in two
different ways based on these interventions’ use frequency and evidence
level.
Firstly, the respondents were asked to report the frequency of each
intervention on a Likert scale from 1 to 3; with 1 indicating frequent
use, 2 for occasional use and 3 indicating never use. We have also
included additional ‘unknown intervention’ options for cognitive
behavioral therapy, progressive relaxation, and mindfulness-based stress
reduction, and interdisciplinary rehabilitation intervention. We
sub-categories these 18 interventions into (i) not recommended (ii)
partially recommended and (iii) recommended groups considering treatment
guidelines for LBP 14–17,31–33. The frequency and
percentage of the physiotherapists who used these eighteen different
intervention options are used as the first way to explain practice
patterns.
Secondly, to segregate practice pattern to the poor, moderate and good;
we calculated points in the following way: (a) for not recommended
interventions, physiotherapists were given 0 points for selecting
frequent use, 1 point for occasional use, 2 points for never use; (b)
for partially recommended interventions, never use selectors were given
0 points, while occasional and frequent selectors were given 1 point;
(c) for recommended interventions, 0 for never use and unknown
intervention, 1 for occasional use and 2 for frequent use. The total
point was ranging from 0-28. The median, first quartile, and the third
quartile of the points were 15, 13, and 17 respectively. Participants
who scored equal and/or above the third quartile were categorized as a
“good practitioner”, equal and/or below the first quartile were
separated as a “poor practitioner” and finally, the physiotherapist
who scored between first and third quartile was identified as a “medium
practitioner” in this study.