The challenging scenario of beliefs and attitudes toward chronic low back pain among final year undergraduate students: A cross-sectional investigation

OBJECTIVE: To identify the beliefs and attitudes of students in four health courses about chronic low back pain (CLBP) management, and to investigate personal and undergraduate training-related factors associated with their beliefs. METHODS: Cross-sectional study conducted with 173 Brazilian medicine, physiotherapy, nursing and pharmacy students. Participants provided information on age, personal experience with LPB, training or class on CLBP management, and contact with patients with CLBP, followed by their first therapeutic choices. HC-PAIRS (0-90) was applied to understand the beliefs and attitudes related to CLBP. We built a One-Way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc tests to compare the results among courses. We built multivariate linear regression models to investigate associated factors with HC-PAIRS score. RESULTS: Mean HC-PAIRS for all participants was 49.8 (±10.2). Physiotherapy students presented more positive CLBP beliefs compared to medicine, pharmacy and nursing students. Only 41.67% of the responses about the first therapeutic choices were according to the main guidelines of care for CLBP. Total HC-PAIRS score was positive and significantly associated with being a student from medicine, nursing and pharmacy. CONCLUSION: Physiotherapy students had more positive beliefs about the association between pain and disability in those with CLBP. Still, the beliefs and attitudes of the majority of health students concerning CLBP are not yet in line with the current management framework.