The development and testing of a checklist to study behaviour change techniques used in a treatment programme for canadian armed forces members with chronic non-specific low back pain

Purpose: There are reports of increased use of a variety of behaviour change techniques (BCT) by physiotherapists and findings of beneficial effects of use. However, there is a lack of physiotherapy-specific definitions of these techniques, as well as a sense of how physiotherapists use them in practice. Through this study, the authors created and field tested a preliminary nomenclature and description for BCT in patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (CNSLBP). Methods: Items for the Physiotherapy Behaviour Change Technique (PT-BCT) checklist were derived from a nomenclature created for use in psychology and also from publications of studies using cognitive behaviour therapy-based approaches in physiotherapy. Content validity was tested via survey of clinical and research experts. Videotapes of a 6-week patient self-management rehabilitation programme were used for training, reliability testing, and field testing of the PT-BCT checklist. Results: Checklist items were endorsed by the majority of experts surveyed; intra-and interrater reliability were moderate to high. In the field study, a broad range of BCT types (behavioural, cognitive, and motivational) were observed in both classroom and gym settings. Conclusions: The BCT nomenclature arising from this study and the PT-BCT checklist will be useful to further explore behaviour change in physiotherapy practice. The observation in this study that BCT were integrated into physiotherapists' practice illustrates how physiotherapists can play a role in changing behaviour, specifically in the presence of CNSLBP.