Abstract

Low back pain’s (LBP) continues to burden society and the individual through high rates of recurrence and chronicity. Recent evidence suggests that the way a clinician thinks about pain influences treatment practices and rehabilitation outcomes. Our study characterized the way American Athletic Trainer’s (AT) and Canadian Athletic Therapist’s (C-AT) think about LBP by measuring treatment orientation. 273 ATs and 382 C-ATs completed a questionnaire containing demographic questions and the Pain Attitudes and Beliefs Scale for Athletic Trainers/Therapists (PABS-AT/C-AT), which classifies treatment orientation as biomedical or biopsychosocial. We noted that overall ATs and C-ATs reported a stronger biomedical orientation than biopsychosocial. In addition, treating more LBP patients per year was associated with a decreased AT’s and C-AT’s biomedical orientation. Age and experience was associated with a decreased C-AT’s biomedical orientation, and primarily treating the general public was associated with a stronger C-AT’s biopsychosocial orientation. Further research is needed to determine the impact AT’s and C-AT’s biomedical orientation has on rehabilitation outcomes since this orientation in other clinicians has been predictive of poor rehabilitation outcomes in LBP patients.