“It's disappointing and it's pretty frustrating, because it feels like it's something that will never go away.” A qualitative study exploring individuals’ beliefs and experiences of Achilles tendinopathy

Abstract

Background Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a common and often persistent musculoskeletal disorder affecting both athletic and non-athletic populations. Despite the relatively high incidence there is little insight into the impact and perceptions of tendinopathy from the individual's perspective. Increased awareness of the impact and perceptions around individuals' experiences with Achilles tendinopathy may provide crucial insights for the management of what is often a complex, persistent, and disabling MSK disorder. Purpose To qualitatively explore the lived experiences of individuals with AT. Design A qualitative, interpretive description design was performed using semi-structured telephone interviews. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 15 participants (8 male and 7 female) with AT. Thematic analysis was performed using the guidelines laid out by Braun and Clarke. The study has been reported in accordance with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist.

Telehealth sounds a bit challenging, but it has potential: participant and physiotherapist experiences of gym-based exercise intervention for Achilles tendinopathy monitored via telehealth

“…It includes two environmental variables: life stress and physical activity environment. These environmental barriers we identified were largely concordant with previous studies examining factors affecting health care participation in this Achilles tendinopathy population [30,31] and may also explain the variable exercise adherence that we observed in our trial. Home exercise may have reduced the time and travel requirements and increased adherence.…”

Conservative management of acute lower limb tendinopathies: A systematic review

“…Finally, we note that no study used education as an intervention, no outcomes for psychological factors were recorded, and little consideration of cognitive and contextual factors have been made (Mallows et al, 2016). Given the relevance of these issues to acute and persistent musculoskeletal conditions (Chester, Jerosch‐Herold, Lewis, & Shepstone, 2016; Cotchett et al, 2020; Turner, Malliaras, Goulis, & Mc Auliffe, 2020), there is a clear knowledge‐gap in this space for LLT and insights here are likely to have a favourable impact for reducing conversion to persistency from acute LLT.…”

LOAD-intensity and time-under-tension of exercises for men who have Achilles tendinopathy (the LOADIT trial): a randomised feasibility trial

“…The etiology of tendinopathy is complex and multifactorial [ 3 ], but imbalance between the load demands placed on the tendon and its capacity to remodel is considered a major factor [ 4 ]. Both athletes and sedentary people can be affected, and many suffer profound and longstanding impairment of activities such as walking and running [ 5 , 6 ].…”

“…This may be because; i) the efficacy of different exercise parameters have not been adequately investigated; ii) exercise approaches are poorly reported so hard to compare; iii) exercise adherence is either not reported or reported with untrustworthy measures; and iv) the specific exercise approach may not matter as much as other factors (e.g. psychological factors such as conceptualisation of pain) [ 6 , 8 , 10 , 11 ].…”