dos Santos L.1,2,3, Vieira R.4, Luis de Magalhães Martins Junior J.5, Corrêa L.6, dos Santos B.3, Alberto Calazans Nogueira L.3
1Veiga de Almeida University, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3Postgraduation Progam, Reabilitation Science of Centro Universitário Augusto Motta, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 4Veiga de Almeida University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 5Veiga de Almeida University, Physio Therapy, Cabo Frio, Brazil, 6Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Background: Pain is the most frequent complaint in musculoskeletal rehabilitation centres and it is present in 80% of patients. Due to this high prevalence, the International Pain Research Association recommends that physiotherapy courses include a particular class on pain education. However, most of the Brazilian institutes do not approach this subject properly. In the future, the consequences of these inappropriate educational methods will be seen on unprepared professionals rehabilitating patients with pain complaints.
Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge in pain neurophysiology in undergraduate students from the physiotherapy degree at Brazilian private universities.
Methods: This is a descriptive observational study using a convenience sample of 46 students of physiotherapy course from private universities in different regions of Brazil. Only students that had already been approved in semiology, musculoskeletal assessment or similar disciplines were included and students who reported at least one failure during the course were excluded. All participants provided written informed consent before participation. Sociodemographic variables were acquired through a survey containing the name, sex, age, and the estimated level of understanding of pain neurophysiology. The estimated level of pain neurophysiology understanding was evaluated by a self-questioning scale that ranges from 0 to 10, where 0 is no knowledge of pain and 10 is the highest knowledge of pain. For assessment of the students knowledge level the Neurophysiological Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) was used, which is a self-administered instrument consisting of 12 items that assess knowledge related to pain neurophysiology. Each item has three response options: true, false, and undecided. It was adapted to the Portuguese language and answered through an electronic form that remained available for 60 days at the universities informatics laboratories. Students who scored at least 65% successes in NPQ were considered to have satisfactory knowledge of pain neurophysiology. The data were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results were presented in values percentage as well as mean and standard deviation.
Results: Forty-six subjects participated in the study, 80.4% females, (age 27.7 ± 7.54) and 19.6% males (age 24.2 ± 3.63), with estimation of knowledge about pain (5.4 ± 1.6), in both genres. Only 33% of subjects achieved satisfactory results of correct answers (69% ± 0.06) and 67% achieved unsatisfactory results of correct answers (48% ± 0.10). Items with more satisfactory results were those about the physiological aspects of pain in contrast to the items about when the pain is felt or their classification, which obtained the lowest results of correct answers.
Conclusion(s): Brazilian private universities students have a very low level of knowledge about pain neurophysiology, especially for items that address clinical aspects of sensation and pain score.
Implications: The results of this study are valuable and help to improving strategies and incentives for education in pain at private universities in Brazil. Education managers can use the results to formulate and implement policies to the better understanding of pain among students.
Funding acknowledgements: Nome
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval: Conducted according to guidelines of Resolution 466/12 of the National Health Council and in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
