Genusperspektiv på rehabilitering för patienter med rygg- och nackbesvär i primärvård

Introduction Gender as a social and cultural construction has an impact on physiotherapist and patient beliefs, understanding, and behaviour and could affect physiotherapy encounters. Gender studies in early rehabilitation are scarce. The aim of this thesis was to study gender during different parts of the rehabilitation process for primary health care patients with neck and back pain. Method The analyses are based on data from three different samples. One sample is composed of physiotherapists and two samples consist of patients consulting primary health care providers because of neck and back pain. All data were gathered from primary health care provided in Västerbotten County. Baseline data on 73 physiotherapists and 586 of their patients with neck and back pain were collected by questionnaire during three consecutive days in 2006. Patient data included affected pain site and treatment procedures used by the physiotherapist (Study I). Differences in treatment procedures used by female and male physiotherapists and differences in use for female or male patients were analysed using Chi square-test, Fisher’s exact tests, Mann-Whitney U tests and logistic regressions with cluster analysis. Thematised interviews with 12 patients were made before the patient’s first appointment with a physiotherapist or doctor and repeated after three months. Data were analysed according to grounded theory (Study II) and qualitative content analysis (Study III). A comprehensive questionnaire was answered at the first appointment when patients sought a physiotherapist in primary health care. The questionnaires included questions about pain intensity, self-rated health, function, psychological stress reactions, domestic work, work environment, self-efficacy and kinesiophobia. Response patterns were linked to the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) and analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares projections to latent structures (PLS). Result Patients were given the same treatment procedures irrespective of gender. The treatment procedures most often used were training of joint motion (48%), training of muscle functions and strength training (31%), massage (31%), physical treatment (28%), information about health/ill health (24%), and acupuncture (18%). Female and male physiotherapists used the same treatment procedures with a few exceptions. Female physiotherapists used treatment for mental functions and acupunc