Associação entre a titulação profissional e decisões clínicas de fisioterapeutas da Região Norte do Brasil para o tratamento da osteoartrite de joelho

Abstract

Introduction: Knee Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major cause of pain and disability in middle-aged and elderly adults, in which physiotherapy plays a significant role in managing its symptoms and main risk factors with therapies known to be effective and recommended by the scientific literature. available related to the treatment of this disease. However, little is known about the clinical practice of physical therapists in knee OA in Brazil and possible factors that may be associated with the therapeutic choices of these professionals. Objective: To investigate the association between the degree of professional qualification of physiotherapists in Northern Brazil and their clinical decision for knee OA. Material and methods: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study that used for data collection an electronic questionnaire built with the SurveyMonkey software tool. The questionnaire was sent via email to physiotherapists registered and legally qualified at the Regional Council for Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy in the 12th region, and included 13 questions involving sociodemographic data, time since graduation and clinical practice, treatment interventions, sources of physiotherapy information and discharge criteria. Descriptive analysis of categorical variables was conducted and to verify the association between the variables, a chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were performed. Results: 370 physical therapists answered the survey, constituting a response rate of 5.88%. Logistic regression analysis indicated an inverse association between the group of graduates and ultrasound (OR=0.17; CI95%=0.06-0.43), shortwave (OR=0.45; CI95%=0.23-0.89), TENS and electrostimulation (OR=0.26; CI95%=0.11-0.62), cryotherapy (OR=0.42; CI95%=0.21-0.84), surface heat (OR=0.46; CI95%=0.23-0.91), whirlpool therapy (OR=0.28; CI95%=0.14-0.57), muscle strengthening (OR=0.09; CI95%=0.01-0.86), kinesio taping (OR=0.41; CI95%=0.20-0.81) and rest interventions (OR=0.40; CI95%=0.20-0.78). For the group of specialists, this association was repeated for ultrasound (OR= 0.50; CI95%=0.25-0.96), TENS and electrostimulation (OR=0.43; CI95%=0.22-0.86), muscle strengthening (OR=0.28; CI95%=0.08-0.96) and kinesio taping therapies (OR=0.50; CI95%=0.27-0.92). Final considerations: The results of this study conducted with physiotherapists from the Northern Region of Brazil indicate that the lower the professional qualification, the lower the chances of perceiving minimally efficient or even not recommended therapeutic modalities for knee OA treatment as poorly efficient or inefficient