A comparison of the attitudes toward chronic low back pain in Saudi, Australian and Brazilian physical therapy students

ObjectivesThe study aimed to: 1) translate the Health Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS) questionnaire into Arabic version; 2) investigate the attitudes and beliefs of Saudi physical therapy students toward chronic Low Back Pain (LBP); and 3) compare the HC-PAIRS scores of our students with those of Brazilian and Australian students from published data.MethodsA back-translated Arabic version of the HC-PAIRS questionnaire was distributed to 150 students from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years and was collected immediately upon completion. Published data for Brazilian and Australian students were compared with data from our students. Analyses of variance were used for all comparisons of the HC-PAIRS scores.ResultsResponse rate was 90%. No significant differences were found in the HC-PAIRS scores between students with chronic LBP and those without (P ≥ .10) or between students at different year levels (P ≥ .10). There were significant differences between our Saudi students and Brazilian and Australian students in the total score and all dimensions of HC-PAIRS (P < .05).ConclusionThis is the first study to translate HC-PAIRS into Arabic language. Compared with Brazilian and Australian students, Saudi physical therapy students agreed more strongly with the notion that chronic LBP leads to impairment and disability.