Observational studyPrimary health care research & development2025
Health professionals' use of smartphone apps for clients with low back pain: an observational study.
Observational study in Primary health care research & development, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimThis study aimed to explore health professionals' use, barriers, confidence, and preferences for technology and smartphone apps to assist clients with self-managing low back pain (LBP).
methodsProspective observational cross-sectional survey of registered Australian health professionals that managed clients with LBP.
resultsIn total, 52 survey responses were included (mean age 43 ±13.8 years). Most did not personally use healthy lifestyle apps (60%) and did not recommend apps due to a lack of knowledge of app effectiveness (93%). The largest barrier to recommending apps was the potential for apps to be misused as a substitute to health professional diagnosis. Fifteen recommended smartphone apps (mean age 36 ±10.6 years) and were at least moderately confident in choosing/recommending apps (94%) and assessing app quality (80%). Those more likely to recommend apps personally used apps for healthy lifestyle behaviours (odds ratio (OR) 5.1 (p = 0.009)) were physiotherapists (OR 0.13 (p = 0.035) c/f chiropractors in their profession for <10 years (OR 8.6 (p = 0.015)) c/f >30 years. Increasing age decreased the odds (OR 0.94 (p = 0.013)) of recommending apps.
conclusionsHealth professionals do not recommend LBP self-management apps due to a lack of knowledge of their effectiveness. Those that do recommend apps are confident with app choice, recommendation, and app quality assessment. Physiotherapists with <10 years' experience were most likely to recommend apps.
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