A national cross-sectional survey of the attitudes, skills and use of evidence-based practice amongst Canadian osteopaths

Background

Health care professions face increasing pressure to integrate research evidence into practice to improve patient outcomes. For many professions, the uptake of evidence-based practice (EBP) remains poorly understood, including for osteopaths in Canada. The primary aim of this study was to determine the perceptions, training, self perceived skills, use, barriers, and facilitators of EBP amongst Canadian osteopaths.

Methods

Canadian Osteopaths were invited to participate in an online survey using the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude and Utilisation Survey.

Results

Four hundred and eight osteopaths’ (response rate 13.4%) provided informed consent of which three hundred and forty answered all questions. The majority of respondents had a favorable perception and believed EBP was important (70.8%). Most respondents (>65%) rated their skills in performing EBP at a medium-high level. EBP use was infrequent among respondents. Barriers to the utilisation of EBP were lack of clinical evidence, time, and relevance to osteopathic practice. Facilitators of EBP use included having greater access to research articles and tools, and further information regarding critical analysis of research. Although searching and consulting research information was rarely performed by respondents, they were perceived as the most important aspect of clinical decision making along with clinical practice guidelines, personal and patient preferences.

Conclusion

Canadian osteopathic manual practitioners were largely supportive of EBP but there was limited commitment to its integration within clinical practice. Improving knowledge and skills of EBP, addressing the barriers of EBP uptake, and integrating EBP into educational programs may improve the uptake of EBP within osteopathic practice.

Implications for practice

There is acknowledgement of the importance and benefits of evidence-based practice amongst Canadian osteopaths.

Although Canadian osteopaths recognize the importance of evidence-based practice there is limited commitment to its use within clinical practice.

The major barriers to the use of evidence-based practice are a lack of time and clinically relevant osteopathic literature.

Canadian osteopaths state that patient preference, clinical practice guidelines, published clinical evidence and personal preference where the most important sources of information used for the basis of clinical decision making.

Interventions that aim to improve knowledge and skills, addresses barriers, and fosters alignment between osteopathic models and evidence-based practices may help to improve the uptake among osteopaths in Canada.