Staying Active after Physiotherapy in People with Osteoarthritis

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Barriers and Facilitators to physiotherapy recommended physical activity for people with lower-limb osteoarthritis: a qualitative interview study exploring people and physiotherapist perspectives

• IRAS ID

  247904

• Contact name

  Alison Rushton

• Contact email

  a.b.rushton@bham.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Birmingham

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 28 days

• Research summary

  Background:
  Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of individual level disability and pain in older adults. Although increasing physical activity (PA) can help reduce symptoms, people with lower-limb OA have reduced activity levels. Physiotherapists are the most common healthcare providers of PA programmes but lack the knowledge of which techniques are most effective at supporting people with lower-limb OA to increase and maintain their physical activity behaviours.
  Aim:
  To explore the perceptions of people with lower-limb OA of physiotherapy interventions in relation to their experiences and preferences of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) to facilitate PA adherence.

  Methods:
  A qualitative study underpinned by phenomenology, will recruit a purposive sample of people with lower limb OA who have had physiotherapy to ensure patterns of similarity and difference can be explored. In-depth semi-structured interviews will be undertaken following discharge from physiotherapy at a single time point. Patients’ current levels of PA, their experiences of physiotherapy interventions, including techniques that they felt optimised their PA, and barriers and facilitators to PA advice will be explored. Data will be coded following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) ‘thematic analysis’ and BCTs identified following guidance from Michie et al.,’s (2013) V1 taxonomy. The feasibility of delivering a physiotherapy intervention incorporating these BCTs will be then be explored through focus groups conducted with physiotherapists who regularly treat people with lower-limb OA.

  Clinical implications:
  Findings will ensure that patient driven data informs the development of the physiotherapy intervention by understanding people with OA’s perspectives on the physiotherapy they received and the effectiveness of BCTs used to encourage PA.

• REC name

  West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  18/WM/0363

• Date of REC Opinion

  27 Nov 2018

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion