Program of study: PhD, Epidemiology

Project title: Guidelines’ utilization regarding musculoskeletal disorders’ assessment and management

Project background: Making practitioners users of guidelines is an important challenge to improve patients’ quality of care. The utilization of clinical practice guidelines by clinicians is influenced by determinants as barriers and facilitators. A better understanding of clinicians’ behaviour influencers is necessary to implement their utilization and orient targeted interventions. In France, the first guidelines about the assessment and the management of neck pain and associated disorders have been published in 2017 for chiropractors. The French college of chiropractic (IFEC) needs feedbacks about interns’ influencers and their conformity in practice with the guideline in 2021. This step will be useful to improve guidelines’ education and implementation. The French professional association (AFC) will use these findings to update the guidelines and improve communication with chiropractors.

Project objectives: The aim of this doctoral thesis is to:
     *    Describe determinants as barriers and facilitators having an influence on clinicians’ guidelines utilization when assessing and managing musculoskeletal disorders.
     *   Develop a survey based on findings from the first objective and apply it to a pilot group of chiropractors and chiropractic interns to study its feasibility.
     *   Conduct this survey in a population of chiropractic interns to determine 1) determinants of guidelines use or non-use 2) conformity of practice by referring to the French guidelines 3) association between determinants and conformity of practice.

Funding sources:
     *   Institut Franco-Européen de Chiropraxie (French Chiropractic College)

Committee Members:
     *   Cyrille Delpierre, PhD (UMR1295, Toulouse III University, Inserm, Equipe EQUITY, constitutive team of CERPOP, Toulouse, France)
     *   Pierre Côté, PhD (Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada)
     *   Nadège Lemeunier (UMR1295, Toulouse III University, Inserm, Equipe EQUITY, constitutive team of CERPOP, Toulouse, France)