Adherence to Home Treatment of Patients With Low Back Pain Through the Use of Information and Communication Technologies.

Currently, performing therapeutic exercises in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries of the spine is decisive in many cases to achieve an improvement in the symptoms of these pathologies, both in the patient's functionality and in the patient's evaluation of their pain. These types of exercises provide improvement, whether they are outpatient or at home. Due to the paradigm shift that has occurred in recent years, mainly motivated by limited resources and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to complement in-person exercise and/or teaching sessions with homework whenever possible. In addition, unnecessary travel is avoided in case patients live far from the consultation.

Adherence to treatment is crucial to obtain the desired benefits. According to the WHO (2003), adherence is the degree to which a person's behavior corresponds to the recommendations agreed upon by a healthcare professional, and it has been observed that patients who comply may have a better outcome at the end of treatment. However, not meeting a minimum of more than 65% adherence negatively influences the outcome of the patient's recovery, with probable consequences on socio-health costs.

Before the appearance of new technologies, home-type therapeutic exercises were taught in consultation and given to the patient in paper format. Nowadays, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital media are an option when administering home treatments, and thanks to these we have much more complete teaching materials. when it comes to remembering what was learned in consultation, such as the Chatbot. For this reason, we value the possibility that the use of this system can help increase adherence to treatment and therefore improve your health condition.

On the other hand, non-compliance rates with treatment are one of the main barriers when it comes to obtaining benefits for the patient. Therefore, digital applications in physiotherapy should be aimed at improving clinical outcomes and promoting adherence through interactive and accessible environments that promote self-efficacy and changes in behavior and routines, as offered by the Chatbot program. One of the most common forms of ICT use is through the use of smartphones, where half of the users of these devices use them to obtain information about health issues, and a fifth uses applications related to this area. This has expanded the offer of health-oriented mobile applications but very little research has been carried out to evaluate adherence or the level of satisfaction among users.