Archives of physiotherapy最新文献

Background: Inflammatory myopathies (IMs) are a group of rare conditions characterized by proximal and often symmetrical muscle weakness and reduced muscle endurance. The recommended medical treatment is based on corticosteroids in combination with immunosuppressants. This anti-inflammatory therapy serves to inhibit and prevent inflammation but does not influence impaired muscle strength. Exercise, particularly progressive resistance training, plays therefore an important role in IMs management. Blended therapy, a combination of face-to-face treatment and telerehabilitation, may be a powerful therapy option in improving exercise program adherence in these patients.

Methods: The feasibility of a 12-week interactive tablet-based home exercise program combined with face-to-face therapy sessions - a 'blended therapy' approach - was evaluated using a quasi-experimental one-group pre-post comparison design. Primary outcomes were recruitment, attrition and adherence rates, plus measures of acceptance (Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire (TAM)) and satisfaction (satisfaction questionnaire). Secondary outcomes comprised potential effects of the intervention on muscle strength and function, activity limitation, disability and health-related quality of life.

Results: Thirteen of the included 14 participants completed the study without any related adverse events. Mean adherence to exercise program was 84% (range: 25-100%) and participants indicated high acceptance of the intervention with mean TAM scores between 6.1 and 6.5 points. Overall satisfaction with the therapy sessions, the home program, and the technology was good. Approximately half the participants wished for longer training periods and more training sessions per week. There were inconsistent effects on muscle strength, muscle function, activity limitation, disability, and health-related quality of life.

Conclusion: Blended therapy combining the use of an interactive tablet-based resistance training program with face-to-face therapy sessions is feasible and safe and participants` acceptance with this approach was high. Furthermore, results were obtained that might be useful in selecting appropriate assessments and sample sizes in future trials.

Trial registration: NCT03713151 .

Background: Implementation of best-practice care for patients with low back pain (LBP) is an important issue. Physiotherapists' who hold unhelpful beliefs are less likely to adhere to guidelines and may negatively influence their patients' beliefs. Pre-registration education is critical in moving towards a biopsychosocial model of care. This study aimed to investigate the changes in 2nd year physiotherapy students' beliefs about LBP after a module on spinal pain management and determine whether these changes were maintained at the end of academic training.

Methods: During three consecutive calendar years, this longitudinal cohort study assessed physiotherapy students' beliefs with the Back Pain Attitudes Questionnaires (Back-PAQ) in their 1st year, before and after their 2nd year spinal management learning module, and at the end of academic training (3rd year). Unpaired t-tests were conducted to explore changes in Back-PAQ score.

Results: The mean response rate after the spinal management module was 90% (128/143 students). The mean (± SD) Back-PAQ score was 87.73 (± 14.21) before and 60.79 (± 11.44) after the module, representing a mean difference of - 26.95 (95%CI - 30.09 to - 23.80, p < 0.001). Beliefs were further improved at the end of 3rd year (- 7.16, 95%CI - 10.50 to - 3.81, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: A spinal management learning module considerably improved physiotherapy students' beliefs about back pain. Specifically, unhelpful beliefs about the back being vulnerable and in need of protection were substantially decreased after the module. Improvements were maintained at the end of academic training one-year later. Future research should investigate whether modifying students' beliefs leads to improved clinical practice in their first years of practice.

Background: Patient experience is an important component of quality and patient centered health care not fully explored in physical therapy.

Main body: This article addresses (1) concept of patient experience, (2) importance of capturing the patient experience, (3) measures to capture patient experience and whether these measures exhibit psychometrically sound measurement properties, (4) relationship between patient experience and clinical effectiveness outcomes, and (5) clinical applications of patient experience measures in the outpatient physical therapy setting, including suggestions for future studies.

Short conclusion: Employing patient experience measures into physical therapy practice may be an important key to improve clinical effectiveness outcomes and provide excellent patient-centered care delivery. An area of continued research should be focused on demonstrating the generalizability and measurement properties of patient reported experience measures for the musculoskeletal outpatient physical therapy population focusing first on the most common musculoskeletal conditions such as cervical, low back, and shoulder pain.

Background: Despite millions spent in research funding, studies, and guidelines, outcomes involving musculoskeletal care continue to decline. The purpose of this Viewpoint is to describe value-based care and to suggest measures for its adoption by physiotherapists who manage individuals with musculoskeletal related pain disorders.

Discussion: The provision of value-based care is best defined as care that includes: 1) patient centeredness, 2) guideline-oriented, integrated strategies, 3) measurement of patient outcomes and experiences, and 4) cost effectiveness. Physiotherapists are well positioned to be leaders in the application of value-based care by assuring they address each of the four strategies during the daily patient encounter. This Viewpoint discusses strategies for application to clinical practice.

Conclusion: By implementing value-based care principals, physiotherapists could assure that patients with musculoskeletal related pain disorders receive the right care at the right time, by the right provider.

Background: Graded activity is gradually emerging as a preferred choice in improving psychosocial outcomes including pain self-efficacy, fear-avoidance beliefs, and back-pain beliefs in the general population with low back pain (LBP). Such evidence is, however, lacking among patients with concomitant LBP and type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This secondary analysis of a randomized control trial aimed to compare the efficacy between graded activity augmented with additional daily-monitored-walking and graded activity alone on disability, pain self-efficacy (PSE), fear-avoidance beliefs (FAB), back-pain beliefs (BPB) and glycaemic control (HbA1c) in patients with concomitant LBP and T2DM.

Methods: Fifty-eight patients with concomitant LBP and T2DM were randomised into two groups, graded activity with daily-monitored-walking group (GAMWG = 29) or (graded activity group (GAG = 29) in this 12-week single-blind trial. Both groups received graded activity (home/work-place visits, back school and sub-maximal exercises) while the GAMWG received additional daily-monitored-walking. Disability and selected psychosocial outcomes were assessed at weeks 0, 4, 8 and 12 using Roland-Morris disability, fear-avoidance behaviour, pain self-efficacy and back belief questionnaires. Glycaemic control was assessed at weeks 0 and 12 using a point-of-care system (In2it, Biorad Latvia). Data were analysed using mean, median, Friedman's ANOVA, Mann-Whitney test and t-tests.

Results: Participants' mean age was 48.3 ± 9.4 years (95%CI: 45.6, 50.9) while 35.3% were males. The GAMWG participants (n = 25) had better outcomes (P < 0.05) than GAG participants (n = 26) on PSE (1.0, 3.0; r = - 0.1) and FAB (0.01, - 2.0; r = - 0.1) at week 4, LBP-related disability (0.01, - 2.0; r = - 0.2) at week 8 and glycaemic control at week 12 (- 0.59 ± 0.51%,-0.46 ± 0.22%). No other between-group comparisons were statistically significant.

Conclusion: Graded activity with daily-monitored-walking provided earlier improvements on disability, pain self-efficacy, fear-avoidance beliefs, and glycaemic control, but not back pain beliefs, in patients with concomitant LBP and T2DM.

Trial registration: PACTR201702001728564 ; 26 July, 2016 (retrospectively registered).

Introduction: PAIN⁺ and PubMed are two electronic databases with two different mechanisms of evidence retrieval. PubMed is used to "Pull" evidence where clinicians can enter search terms to find answers while PAIN⁺ is a newly developed evidence repository where along with "Pull" service there is a "Push" service that alerts users about new research and the associated quality ratings, based on the individual preferences for content and altering criteria.

Purpose: The primary purpose of the study was to compare yield and usefulness of PubMed and PAIN⁺ in retrieving evidence to address clinical research questions on pain management. The secondary purpose of the study was to identify what search terms and methods were used by clinicians to target pain research.

Study design: Two-phase double blinded randomized crossover trial.

Methods: Clinicians (n = 76) who were exposed to PAIN⁺ for at least 1 year took part in this study. Participants were required to search for evidence 2 clinical question scenarios independently. The first clinical question was provided to all participants and thus, was multi-disciplinary. Participants were randomly assigned to search for evidence on their clinical question using either PAIN⁺ or PubMed through the electronic interface. Upon completion of the search with one search engine, they were crossed over to the other search engine. A similar process was done for a second scenario that was discipline-specific. The yield was calculated using number of retrieved articles presented to participants and usefulness was evaluated using a series of Likert scale questions embedded in the testing.

Results: Multidisciplinary scenario: Overall, the participants had an overall one-page yield of 715 articles for PAIN⁺ and 1135 articles for PubMed. The topmost article retrieved by PAIN⁺ was rated as more useful (p = 0.001). While, the topmost article retrieved by PubMed was rated as consistent with current clinical practice (p = 0.02). PubMed (48%) was preferred over PAIN⁺ (39%) to perform multidisciplinary search (p = 0.02). Discipline specific scenario: The participants had an overall one-page yield of 1046 articles for PAIN⁺ and 1398 articles for PubMed. The topmost article retrieved by PAIN⁺ was rated as more useful (p = 0.001) and consistent with current clinical practice (p = 0.02) than the articles retrieved by PubMed. PAIN⁺ (52%) was preferred over PubMed (29%) to perform discipline specific search.

Conclusion: Clinicians from different disciplines find both PAIN⁺ and PubMed useful for retrieving research studies to address clinical questions about pain management. Greater preferences and perceived usefulness of the top 3 retrieved papers was observed for PAIN⁺