Physiotherapists’ perceptions regarding the patient adherence to prescribed self-management strategies: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate physiotherapists' perceptions regarding importance of patient's adherence to physiotherapist prescribed selfmanagement strategies in improving patients outcomes as well as to identify perceived barriers by physiotherapists in employing methods to aid adherence. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 120 physiotherapists using non-probability purposive sampling technique. Only those physiotherapists who worked clinically more than 15 hours per week and had an experience of treating adult patients with average patient load of 80% or greater were included in the study. The questionnaires were self-administered by researcher. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) by SPSS version 22. Results: Most of the physiotherapists' .i.e. 90.8% perceived that individualizing the self-management techniques to the patients as the most important method to improve patient adherence to self-management techniques in positively influencing outcomes. However major barriers that prevent physiotherapists from employing methods to improve patients' adherence were lack of time 38.3% and lack of resources 44.2%. Conclusion:This survey concluded that physiotherapists perceive that patients adherence to self-care techniques can significantly affect treatment outcomes. However lack of time and limited asses to resources were the barriers that mostly prevent physiotherapist s from employing methods to aid adherence. Therefore physiotherapists should be focused to apply evidence-based methods to maintain patients' adherence.