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The following is a summary of “Unhelpful Information About Low Back and Neck Pain on Physiotherapist’s Websites,” published in the January 2025 issue of Pain by Noord et al. 

Despite the internet being a primary information source for patients with musculoskeletal pain, the extent to which biopsychosocial, guidelines-consistent, and fear-inducing information on low back pain (LBP) and neck pain (NP) is provided by private physiotherapy practices on the websites remains largely unexplored.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze the information on private physiotherapy practice websites in the Netherlands about LBP and NP, focusing on guideline consistency, the biopsychosocial model, and the use of fear-inducing language.  

They examined the content of all existing private physiotherapy practice websites in the Netherlands through an analysis based on predetermined criteria aligned with the biopsychosocial model and evidence-based guidelines. Descriptive statistics were used for data presentation.  

The results showed that after removing duplicates and non-informative sites, 834 (10%) of 8,707 websites remained. Information on LBP was available on 449 (54%) websites, while 295 (35%) provided information on NP. Most websites for both LBP (n = 287, 64%) and NP (n = 174, 59%) were biomedically focused. Treatment advice appeared 1,855 times on 560 (67%) websites, with most interventions not aligned with guidelines and fear-inducing language was used 1,624 (69%) times.  

Investigators concluded that most of the information on Dutch private physiotherapy websites regarding LBP and NP was predominantly biomedical, often deviated from current clinical guidelines, and potentially exacerbated patient fear. 

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejp.4782