Do health care providers' attitudes towards back pain predict their treatment recommendations? Differential predictive validity of implicit and explicit attitude measures

R M A Houben; A Gijsen; J Peterson; P J de Jong; J W S Vlaeyen

doi:10.1016/j.pain.2005.01.017

Do health care providers' attitudes towards back pain predict their treatment recommendations? Differential predictive validity of implicit and explicit attitude measures

Pain. 2005 Apr;114(3):491-498. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2005.01.017.

Authors

R M A Houben¹, A Gijsen, J Peterson, P J de Jong, J W S Vlaeyen

Affiliation

¹ Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Research Institute Experimental Psychopathology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands Hoensbroek Centre for Vocational Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Foundation Limburg, Hoensbroek, The Netherlands Section Experimental Psychopathology, Psychology Department, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

PMID: 15777874
DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2005.01.017

Abstract

The current study aimed to measure the differential predictive value of implicit and explicit attitude measures on treatment behaviour of health care providers. Thirty-six physiotherapy students completed a measure of explicit treatment attitude (Pain Attitudes And Beliefs Scale For Physiotherapists-PABS-PT) and a measure of implicit treatment attitude (Extrinsic Affective Simon Task-EAST). Furthermore, they gave treatment recommendations for a patient simulating back pain on three video scenes. The implicit and explicit measures of attitudes were only weakly related to each other. However, both were differentially related to treatment recommendations. The implications of the differential predictive value of implicit and explicit attitude measures for treatment behaviour are discussed.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Validation Study

MeSH terms

Adult
Allied Health Personnel / education
Allied Health Personnel / psychology*
Attitude of Health Personnel*
Back Pain / psychology*
Back Pain / therapy*
Female
Humans
Male
Physical Therapy Specialty* / education
Predictive Value of Tests
Reproducibility of Results
Students / psychology
Videotape Recording