Table 2.

Factors Associated with Selecting Different Treatments for a Case of Knee OA (Bivariate Analysis: χ² or Fisher’s Exact Test)

Factor and category	Electrotherapy		Thermotherapy or cryotherapy		Manual therapy		Strengthening exercises
	% selecting	p-value	% selecting	p-value	% selecting	p-value	% selecting	p-value
> 50% MSK caseload
No	31.0	0.19	72.4	0.99	20.7	< 0.001	86.2	1.00
Yes	44.0		72.3		59.0		84.9
Gender
Female	41.1	0.56	72.6	0.97	50.7	0.15	85.6	0.70
Male	45.8		72.9		62.5		83.3
Level of education beyond bachelor’s degree
No	39.7	0.41	70.7	0.54	48.3	0.09	81.9	0.012
Yes	45.6		74.7		60.8		89.9
Experience, y
< 5	39.1	0.64	73.9	0.73	60.9	0.19	89.1	0.34
6–20	46.2		69.2		56.4		87.2
≥ 21	39.4		74.6		45.1		80.3
Sector of practice
Private	49.5	0.041	70.5	0.59	76.8	< 0.001	84.2	0.73
Public	35.0		74.0		31.0		86.0
Urban–rural
Urban	41.7	0.79	72.0	0.83	52.4	0.51	83.3	0.09
Rural	44.4		74.1		59.3		96.3
Type of practice
Solo	46.5	0.72	65.1	0.35	62.8	0.027	86.0	0.84
Group with no medical doctor	39.1		71.3		58.6		83.9
Group with medical doctor	41.3		77.8		39.7		87.3
Manual therapy or osteopathy courses taken
Yes	44.1	0.21	72.7	0.81	61.5	<0.001	84.5	0.58
No	32.4		70.6		14.7		88.2
Chronic pain, sports PT, or electrotherapy courses taken
Yes	45.5	0.38	63.6	0.014	62.5	0.020	85.2	0.97
No	39.3		79.4		45.8		85.0
Any post-graduate courses taken
Yes	41.3	0.50	72.1	1.00	57	0.001	85.5	0.71
No	50.0		75.0		12.5		81.3
Correctly diagnosed OA
Yes	43.5	0.38	73.9	0.28	56.5	0.05	87.6	0.036
No	35.3		64.7		38.2		73.5

OA = osteoarthritis; MSK = musculoskeletal; PT = physiotherapy.