Physiotherapists’ assessment of psychosocial factors in individuals with musculoskeletal pain: A scoping review

This study aims to review physiotherapists’ practice in assessing psychosocial factors in individuals with musculoskeletal pain. A comprehensive electronic search was conducted on May 2022 in four databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Scopus. Two reviewers independently screened retrieved studies for potential inclusion in the review. Data were extracted by two independent reviewers using a standardized extraction form. A total of 15 studies were included. Physiotherapists assessed musculoskeletal pain using the biomedical model, with little consideration of the assessment of psychosocial factors. Although physiotherapists were aware of the importance of assessment of the psychosocial factors, those factors were not routinely assessed in clinical practice. In general, some physiotherapists have informally assessed the psychosocial factors during patients’ interviews\dialogues, while others rely on gut feelings during patients’ interviews to identify psychosocial factors. Formal screening of psychosocial factors using validated questionnaires was not part of the routine clinical practice of physiotherapists. Multiple factors were described to be the barriers to such assessment including lacked education in assessing psychosocial factors, the need for skills and training on such assessment, and insufficient treatment session duration.