2015clohesypromsinchiro

Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are commonly utilised in clinical practice within healthcare and are considered an effective tool for communication between clinician and patient. Patient reported outcome measures are defined as any report of the status of a patient’s health condition that comes directly from the patient. The aims of this research project were: (i) to identify the most commonly cited PROMs for low back pain (LBP) within the chiropractic literature; (ii) to establish the current utilisation of PROMs for LBP amongst chiropractors in Australia and to identify the potential barriers and facilitators for use; (iii) to evaluate factors that are associated with utilisation of PROMs in chiropractic practice; and (iv) using the New World Kirkpatrick Model (NWKM), to determine whether an education package intervention increases chiropractors’ knowledge, modifies attitudes and beliefs and creates clinical behaviour change (v) to determine whether knowledge to action (KTA) was an appropriate framework for educating the chiropractic profession regarding PROMs. A systematic narrative review was conducted to determine the most commonly cited PROMs for LBP within the chiropractic literature. The review identified 144 articles and 75 different PROMs. The four most cited PROMs were the Oswestry Disability Index, Numeric Rating Scale, Visual Analogue Scale and Roland Morris Questionnaire. The cohort surveys determined the current utilisation of PROMs for LBP amongst chiropractors in Australia, identified barriers and facilitators for clinical use, and reported chiropractors’ knowledge, understanding, beliefs and utilisation of PROMs. Cohort survey 1 included 558 participants and found that the LBP PROM utilisation rate in clinical practice was 72.5%. The second cohort survey, consisted of three online surveys (2a, 2b and 2c) and the delivery of an educational package intervention. The education intervention was evaluated using the NWKM. This model established that the reaction to the education package was very positive with a mean response scores (1–5 Likert scale) for the reaction questions ranged from 3.75 to 4.43. There was a small, but significant, increase in knowledge (score out of 32) at four weeks (27.2 ± 5.5) and 12 weeks after receiving the education package (27.4 ± 5.1), when compared to baseline scores (24.2 ± 6.1). Additionally, there was a small and significant (p