| Sumario: | Objectives: To evaluate the beliefs of people with patellofemoral pain (PFP) about their condition's development and persistence, and treatment options, before and after self‐directed access to a web‐based education platform. Design: Pre‐ and post‐intervention trial. Methods: Fifty‐eight people with PFP completed custom questionnaires (open‐ended and multiple choice) before and 6 weeks after accessing the "My Knee Cap" web‐based education platform. Questions covered beliefs about causes and persistence of pain, effectiveness of treatments, and willingness to undergo surgery. Open‐ended responses were analysed thematically. McNemar's test with Yates correction compared changes between pre‐ and post‐intervention for multiple choice questions. Results: At baseline and 6 weeks, PFP onset was primarily attributed to loading. At baseline, pain persistence was linked to loading, structure, and muscle impairments, with muscle impairments being replaced by sedentary behaviour at the 6‐week follow‐up. At baseline, most participants (69%–81%) believed that taping, bracing, foot orthoses, and exercises were effective treatment options. Fewer participants (16%–22%) believed that dry needling, injections, ultrasound, and surgery were effective. At 6 weeks, beliefs about the effectiveness of exercise (16% increase, ES = 0.15), injections (13% decrease, ES = 0.44), and ultrasound (15% decrease, ES = 0.50) changed. At baseline and 6 weeks, most participants (93%–95%) believed exercise was more effective than surgery, and 46%–59% were willing to undergo surgery if imaging revealed abnormalities. Conclusion: Beliefs about the causes and persistence of PFP centred on loading and pathoanatomical factors, remaining largely unchanged after self‐directed web‐based education. Web‐based education may help to promote the benefits of exercise and reduce beliefs that injection and ultrasound are helpful.
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