Evidence-Based Practice: a survey of Brazilian physical therapists from the dermatology subdiscipline

Background: Dermatology is a relatively new subdiscipline of physical therapy with growth potential. Therefore, it is important to identify whether professionals from this area have the knowledge and skills required to offer the best available service based on evidence-based practice.

Objectives: To describe the self-reported behavior, knowledge, skills, opinion, and barriers related to the evidence-based practice of Brazilian physical therapists from the dermatology subdiscipline.

Methods: An adapted electronic questionnaire was sent by the Brazilian Association of Dermatology Physical Therapy via email to all registered members. The data were analyzed descriptively.

Results: The response rate was 40.4% (101/250). Brazilian physical therapists from the dermatology subdiscipline reported that they update themselves equally through scientific papers and courses, and access preferentially databases that offer scientific papers in the Portuguese language. Respondents believe they have sufficient knowledge to use evidence-based practice, inform patients about treatment options and consider their choices in the decision-making process. However, there were inconsistencies in responses regarding the experience with evidence-based practice during undergraduate or postgraduate degree, as well as having discussions about evidence-based practice in the workplace. The barriers most frequently reported were difficulty to obtain full-text papers, lack of quality of the scientific papers, applicability of the findings into clinical practice, lack of evidence-based practice training and difficulty to understand the statistics.

Conclusion: Brazilian physical therapists from the dermatology subdiscipline have positive perceived behavior, believe that they have sufficient knowledge and skills, and have favorable opinion related to evidence-based practice. However, there are inconsistencies related to some aspects of knowledge and skills set.