Introduction:The relevance of ecosystems to physiotherapy has traditionally been overlooked, despite its potential for positive health impacts relevant to conditions often managed by physiotherapists. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of ecosystem services to physiotherapists, and to discuss how understanding ecosystem services may improve patient care, and population and planetary health.
Discussion and Conclusion:Physiotherapists with an understanding of ecosystem services may improve patient care by value-adding to management through patient education, empathy, advocacy, and broader population health approaches.Physiotherapists are also well placed to promote the conservation and restoration of ecosystem through participation, advocacy, and the development of public health measures, to the benefit of global sustainability and population health. Further research is required into how physiotherapists currently use nature-based interventions, and the barriers and enablers to their use. To be adequately prepared to meet the challenges that climate change and environmental degradation pose to patient care, population health and health systems, both current and future physiotherapists need to take a broader view of their practice. By including consideration of the potential role of the environment and green space exposure in particular on their patient's health, physiotherapists can ultimately contribute more to population and planetary health.
BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorders are a leading cause of work-related ill health, and a major cost burden for the individual, industry and the community. Despite the broad range of risk factors that have been identified, most studies have focused only on specific occupations or categories of risk factors, meaning that there is limited understanding of the relative contributions of individual and organisational, physical and psychosocial factors. OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional survey of workers in medium-to-large workplaces in South Australia sought to examine a broad range of factors within various workplaces and industries. PARTICIPANTS: 404 workers from 29 workgroups and 23 separate companies participated in the research. METHODS: Questionnaires were administered face-to-face, assessing demographic and job characteristics, safety climate, musculoskeletal pain and discomfort (MSPD) and job satisfaction. Potential predictors were grouped in terms of personal/job and organizational characteristics and associations with MSPD examined. RESULTS: A considerable proportion of workers (40%) had experienced MSPD in the last 7 days and 15% had experienced severe MSPD. In a multivariate model, four variables were found to be significantly associated with MSPD, namely being aged 40 years (adjusted odds ratio = 1.73), overall job satisfaction (negatively associated) (AOR = 0.37), medium (vs. large) company size (AOR = 1.80) and workgroup safety climate score (negatively associated) (AOR = 0.58).
CONCLUSIONS:The results confirm a link between non-physical factors and work-related musculoskeletal disorders, suggesting that these factors should received increased attention as part of overall health and safety strategies. Organizations should give greater consideration to both the satisfaction of their employees and organizational factors that set the tone for safety climate.
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