Table 1 ABS-mp and PABS subscales (the last column is specific to this research project which aimed to change participants’ attitudes to back pain)
Scale name | Subitems | Subitem detail | Score | Predicted direction of change in intervention arm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ABS-mp | Personal interaction consists of four factors | Â | Â | |
|  | LS | Limitations on sessions, items about practitioners’ policy towards limiting the length of treatment (four items). | 28 | Unknown |
|  | PS | Psychological, items measuring practitioners’ willingness to engage with psychological issues with their patients (four items). | 28 | Unknown |
|  | CHS | Connection to healthcare system, items measuring practitioners’ perception of the health-care system and provision of available services (three items). | 21 | Unknown |
|  | CC | Confidence and concern, items measuring practitioners’ confidence and concern about treatment and clinical limitations in themselves and others (two items). | 14 | Unknown |
| Â | Treatment orientation consists of two factors | Â | Â | |
|  | RA | Re-activation, items that concern return to work and to daily activity and increasing mobility (three items). | 21 | ↑ |
|  | BM | Biomedical; items that concern advice to restrict activities and to be vigilant, and the belief that there is an underlying structural cause of back pain (3 items). | 21 | ↓ |
PABS | Biomedical | Practitioner believes in a biomechanical model of disease, where disability and pain are consequences of specific tissue pathology and treatment is aimed at treating the pathology | 10 | ↓ |
|  | Behavioural | Practitioner believes in a biopsychosocial model of disease, in which pain does not have to be a sign of tissue damage and can be influenced by social and psychological factors | 9 | ↑ |