Factors Related to the Number of Visits to PT in PHC

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders can be a large burden on individuals, health care and social care systems. Patients with musculoskeletal disorders are often treated by physiotherapists in primary health care. Psychosocial variables can be a significant obstacle to recover from musculoskeletal injuries.

The primary aim of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of performing a prospective study investigating whether self-efficacy, fear of movement, empowerment or enablement has any relation to the number of visits to physiotherapist among patients with a musculoskeletal disorder in primary health care.

Methods: Prospective study with consecutively selection including patients seeking physiotherapist for the first time for a musculoskeletal disorder. Primary outcome measure included operational and practical feasibility regarding recruitment of participants, use of questionnaires and key variables to be collected as part of the study. Secondary outcomes included correlation between self-efficacy (Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES-S)), fear of movement (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-SV)), empowerment (Making Decisions Scale ), enablement (Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI)) and number of visits to physiotherapist. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS statistics version 24 with analysis of correlation using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients, who seek physiotherapist for the first time for a musculoskeletal disorder, are over 18 years of age and are able to read, write and understand Swedish.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients, who have visited physiotherapist previous for the same musculoskeletal disorder and/or are diagnosed with malignant diseases. Patients, who suffer from dementia, severe mental illness or other conditions making them not able to understand the information about the study and not able to fill in the questionnaires.