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• There is a high variation in measuring causal beliefs about low back pain. • No measurement exists that clearly isolates causal beliefs from other belief domains. • There is a lack of studies exploring longitudinal relationships between causal beliefs and health outcomes. • Causal beliefs are just one element of a complex beliefs construct, and there is very little quantitative evidence from which its unique relevance can be judged. To explore how causal beliefs regarding non-specific low back pain (LBP) have been quantitatively investigated. A scoping review based on the guidelines by the JBI (former Joanna Briggs Institute) was conducted. We searched Medline, Embase, Psychinfo, and CINAHL for relevant studies and included peer-reviewed original articles that measured causal beliefs about non-specific LBP among adults and reported results separate from other belief domains. A total of 81 studies were included, of which 62 (77%) had cross sectional designs, 11 (14%) were cohort studies, 3 (4%) randomized controlled trials, 4 (5%) non-randomized controlled trials, and 1 (1%) case control. Only 15 studies explicitly mentioned cause, triggers, or etiology in the study aim. We identified the use of 6 questionnaires from which a measure of causal beliefs could be obtained. The most frequently used questionnaire was the Illness Perception Questionnaire which was used in 8 of the included studies. The studies covered 308 unique causal belief items which we categorized into 15 categories, the most frequently investigated being causal beliefs related to " structural injury or impairment" , which was investigated in 45 (56%) of the studies. The second and third most prevalent categories were related to " lifting and bending " (26 studies [32%]) and " mental or psychological " (24 studies [30%]). There is a large variation in how causal beliefs are measured and a lack of studies designed to investigate causal beliefs, and of studies determining a longitudinal association between such beliefs and patient outcomes. This scoping review identified an evidence gap and can inspire future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]