Investigating attitudes and practices of dry needling among physical therapists in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

BACKGROUND

Dry needling (DN) is a physical therapy technique that is used to help treat myofascial trigger points. Although it is globally and widely used, there is a lack of information on the use of DN among physical therapists in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate attitudes and practice patterns of physical therapists on the use of DN in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

METHODS

This cross-sectional online survey, a previously survey was face validated and then distributed via WhatsApp messages to 623 physical therapists. Demographics and responses were presented as frequencies and percentages. Relationships and correlations between variables were evaluated using the chi-square test and Pearson's correlation coefficient, respectively.

RESULTS

A total of 191 physical therapists completed the survey. The majority of the respondents were females (n = 146, 76%) and aged between 31 and 40 years old (n = 122, 64%). Approximately half of them (n = 102, 53%) had >11 years of clinical experience, and were certified DN practitioners (n = 97, 51%). The majority of the respondents (n = 83, 77%) had used DN in the past 12 months, mainly to relieve pain (n = 69, 83%) and decrease muscle tension (n = 67, 81%), in combination with manual therapy (n = 73, 88%) and exercises (n = 62, 75%). Most respondents reported the occurrence of adverse events (76%) but mainly minor adverse events.

CONCLUSION

The Majority of the physical therapists surveyed applied DN in their clinical practice in the last year. Minor adverse events from DN were more common than major adverse events.