Exploration of chiropractic students' motivation toward the incorporation of new evidence on chiropractic maintenance care: a mixed methods study.

Objectives: This sequential explanatory mixed-method study aimed to explore chiropractic students' attitudes toward incorporating maintenance care (MC) focused evidence.

Methods: Attitudes towards using an evidence-based clinical protocol for maintenance care (MC), the MAINTAIN instrument, were assessed via surveys, monologue responses, dialogues, and qualitative feedback. Participants from a single chiropractic educational institution completed questionnaires evaluating their perspectives on patient-centeredness, chronic pain, and evidence incorporation. Descriptive statistics summarized quantitative data, while content analysis was used for qualitative data.

Results: 74.4% (n=419) of students participated, mostly male (57.5%), with an average GPA of 3.15 (out of a maximum of 4.0). Qualitative analysis identified the need to clarify MC terminology and factors motivating students to adopt new evidence, such as quality and alignment with healthcare beliefs.

Conclusions: This study's findings emphasize the importance of refining healthcare training strategies, including defining terminology and addressing motivators for evidence incorporation, as evidence for MC for low back pain evolves.