Stead, A, Vishnubala, D, Marino, KR et al. (3 more authors) (2023) UK physiotherapists delivering physical activity advice: what are the challenges and possible solutions? A qualitative study. BMJ Open, 13 (4). e069372. ISSN 2044-6055
Abstract
Objectives Despite the known health benefits of physical activity (PA), PA levels are in decline. Healthcare professionals, including physiotherapists, have been identified as ideal conduits to promote PA, yet their knowledge and awareness of PA guidelines are poor. The aims of this study were to explore current knowledge of PA guidelines among UK physiotherapists and identify barriers and possible solutions to delivering PA advice.
Design A qualitative approach using semistructured interviews that took place between March and May 2021. Data were analysed with a thematic approach using Braun and Clarke’s six steps.
Setting Various inpatient and outpatient clinical settings across six UK regions.
Participants Eighteen UK-based physiotherapists managing National Health Service patients were recruited through volunteer sampling in March 2021.
Results Five themes and 16 subthemes (shown in parenthesis) were identified as barriers and solutions to delivering PA advice: physiotherapist intrinsic barriers (knowledge, fear/confidence); a lack of emphasis and priority given to PA (time constraints, minimal educational and staff training); patient barriers (compliance, expectations and fear of doing PA); increasing awareness of the PA guidelines (staff training, signposting awareness, use of social media and television campaigns); and optimising delivery (use of visual resources, good communication and approaches involving being individualised and gradual for patients with chronic conditions).
Conclusions In this study, physiotherapist participants seemed to have limited awareness of the PA guidelines despite recent updates and were faced with similar barriers to those previously reported in the literature. The solutions suggested could guide strategies to support physiotherapists being able to deliver PA advice. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficiency of any implemented solutions supporting the delivery of PA advice.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biomedical Sciences (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 May 2023 09:35 |
Last Modified: | 04 May 2023 09:35 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMJ Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069372 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:198795 |