School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, City East Campus, GPO, Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia.
Complement Ther Med. 2010 Feb;18(1):28-41. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2009.11.002. Epub 2009 Dec 28.
To examine Australian acupuncturists' perspectives of: chronic low back pain outcome domains; their use of outcome measures to assess chronic low back pain; and their attitudes and perceptions of barriers to using the existing measures to evaluate acupuncture care for chronic low back pain.
A postal questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional survey.
359 randomly selected Australian acupuncturists.
139 questionnaires were returned (response rate: 38.7%). The respondents' demographic characteristics were similar to Australian Bureau of Statistics acupuncturist demographic data. Overall, acupuncturists endorsed a broad approach to assessing acupuncture care for chronic low back pain. However, they had typically used pain severity measures but generally did not use other types of measures. Acupuncturists tended to hold positive attitudes towards using outcome measures. The principal barriers acupuncturists perceived to using outcome measures concerned doubts about whether the concepts which underpin acupuncture practice had been explicitly articulated and whether the available measures capture the specific context and particular outcomes of acupuncture care for chronic low back pain.
The findings of this study suggest that a broad range of outcome measures are required to adequately assess chronic low back pain acupuncture care outcomes. While numerous outcome measures have been developed that are relevant to chronic low back pain care, whether these measures are appropriate for use by acupuncturists is unclear. Further studies are warranted to explore if established outcome measures are useful to evaluate chronic low back acupuncture care.
调查澳大利亚针灸师对以下内容的看法：慢性下背痛的结果领域；他们用于评估慢性下背痛的结果测量方法；以及他们对使用现有测量方法评估慢性下背痛针灸治疗的障碍的态度和看法。
采用横断面调查的邮寄问卷。
359 名随机选择的澳大利亚针灸师。
共收回 139 份问卷（应答率：38.7%）。受访者的人口统计学特征与澳大利亚统计局针灸师的人口统计学数据相似。总体而言，针灸师认可评估慢性下背痛针灸治疗的广泛方法。然而，他们通常使用疼痛严重程度测量方法，但通常不使用其他类型的测量方法。针灸师倾向于对使用结果测量方法持有积极的态度。针灸师认为使用结果测量方法的主要障碍涉及对构成针灸实践基础的概念是否明确表达的疑虑，以及现有的测量方法是否能捕捉到慢性下背痛针灸治疗的具体情况和特定结果。
本研究的结果表明，需要广泛的结果测量方法来充分评估慢性下背痛的针灸治疗结果。尽管已经开发了许多与慢性下背痛护理相关的结果测量方法，但这些方法是否适合针灸师使用尚不清楚。需要进一步的研究来探讨现有的结果测量方法是否有助于评估慢性下背痛的针灸治疗。
