As part of the World Day of Physiotherapy (8th September), which this year focuses on the low back pain (low back pain) and the role of physiotherapy in its assessment and treatment, the Order of Physiotherapists, in partnership with the School of Health of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, is starting the expansion of the SPLIT programmewhich is aligned with the Directorate-General for Health's National Health Plan 2030.
SPLIT, which has already been developed and implemented in the Arrábida Health Centre Grouping - ARSLVT, is an innovative programme in the field. assessment and treatment of low back pain.
It uses a screening tool that classifies individuals with episodes of low back pain into three categories of risk of developing persistent and disabling symptoms (low, medium and high), and which showed promising results in the pilot study.
In a sample of around 500 users in this programme, 6 months after the initial consultation, was reduced, at around 80%, the likelihood of having persistent and disabling low back pain.
Also in terms of prescription of complementary diagnostic means and medication, this programme has enabled reduce each of these indicators by around 30%.
Recently, the SPLIT programme was selected for the 1st phase of the Sustainable Health Pact 2030as part of the process of implementing the National Health Plan 2030coordinated by the Directorate-General for Health, a collaborative and multisectoral process that guides and influences public policies and interventions with an impact on health in Portugal.
This initial implementation phase will focus on expanding the programme to other health units in Portugal that already have integrated physiotherapists.
To this end, in this next phase of the process, potential stakeholders will be identified and consulted, in various regions of the country, with the aim of train physiotherapistsfrom first semester of 2025This will ensure that more users can benefit from this innovative approach to treating low back pain.
