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Contact Details

Phone
+64 4 832 3123
Email
ben.darlow@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor
Department
Department of Primary Health Care (Wellington)
Research summary
Back pain; interprofessional education

Research

Ben’s main research foci are low back pain and interprofessional education.

Ben has explored practitioner and patient attitudes and beliefs related to low back pain and influences upon these. He is currently investigating ways to positively influence these beliefs to improve back pain outcomes.

Ben is part of the Department’s interprofessional teaching team and is currently examining the short term outcomes of a brief undergraduate teaching initiative. He is also leading the Longitudinal Interprofessional (LIP) Study which will investigate changes in interprofessional attitudes and skills over the final year of health professional training and the first three years of professional practice. It will also explore if undergraduate interprofessional education influences these skills and attitudes or the career pathway of these graduates. This study involves participants from the disciplines of dentistry, dietetics, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, oral health, pharmacy, and physiotherapy.

Ben is also involved in research exploring primary care prevalence and utilisation for childhood illness and patient beliefs about osteoarthritis. He is a member of the University of Otago’s Pain and Arthritis research themes.

Publications

Christe, G., Darlow, B., Hartvigsen, J., Stanic, J., Rosa, M., Virdee, J., … Genevay, S. (2026). PRIME: A multilevel intervention for low back pain management in primary care: Protocol for an effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 1 cluster randomized controlled trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 53, 101679. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2026.101679 Journal - Research Other

Toovey, R., Linton, J., Lin, I., Bolton, J., Buhler, M., Bunzli, S., Darlow, B., Devan, H., … Conley, B. (2026). Moving forward together. Part 5: Championing physical therapy allyship and advocacy for Indigenous peoples with musculoskeletal pain. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 56(6), 324-330. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2026.13858 Journal - Research Other

Corrêa, L. A., Hancock, M. J., Mathieson, S., Calazans Nogueira, L. A., da Silva, T., Saragiotto, B., … Darlow, B., & French, S. D. (2026). Translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and measurement properties of the Back pain knowledge and beliefs survey (BacKS) for the Brazilian population. Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy, 30, 101600. doi: 10.1016/j.bjpt.2026.101600 Journal - Research Article

Lu, S., Darlow, B., Xiang, Q., Xie, X., Zhou, Y., Cheng, M., … Li, G. (2026). The Chinese version of the Back Pain Attitudes Questionnaire: Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation. Musculoskeletal Science & Practice, 83, 103558. doi: 10.1016/j.msksp.2026.103558 Journal - Research Article

Toomey, D., Lewis, G., Tuck, N., Darlow, B., Rashid, U., & Rice, D. (2026). Can a targeted pre-exercise education intervention enhance the Exercise-Induced Hypoalgesia (EIH) response in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA)? International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases, 29(3), e70587. doi: 10.1111/1756-185x.70587 Journal - Research Article

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