BackgroundMost conventional treatment for musculoskeletal conditions continue to show moderate effects, prompting calls for ways to increase effectiveness, including drawing from strategies used across other health conditions. Therapeutic alliance refers to the relational processes at play in treatment which can act in combination or independently of specific interventions. Current evidence guiding the use of therapeutic alliance in health care arises largely from psychotherapy and medicine literature. The objective of this review was to map out the available literature on therapeutic alliance conceptual frameworks, themes, measures and determinants in musculoskeletal rehabilitation across physiotherapy and occupational therapy disciplines.MethodsA scoping review of the literature published in English since inception to July 2015 was conducted using Medline, EMBASE, PsychINFO, PEDro, SportDISCUS, AMED, OTSeeker, AMED and the grey literature. A key search term strategy was employed using “physiotherapy”, “occupational therapy”, “therapeutic alliance”, and “musculoskeletal” to identify relevant studies. All searches were performed between December 2014 and July 2015 with an updated search on January 2017. Two investigators screened article title, abstract and full text review for articles meeting the inclusion criteria and extracted therapeutic alliance data and details of each study.ResultsOne hundred and thirty articles met the inclusion criteria including quantitative (33%), qualitative (39%), mixed methods (7%) and reviews and discussions (23%) and most data came from the USA (23%). Randomized trials and systematic reviews were 4.6 and 2.3% respectively. Low back pain condition (22%) and primary care (30.7%) were the most reported condition and setting respectively. One theory, 9 frameworks, 26 models, 8 themes and 42 subthemes of therapeutic alliance were identified. Twenty-six measures were identified; the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) was the most utilized measure (13%). Most of the therapeutic alliance themes extracted were from patient perspectives. The relationship between adherence and therapeutic alliance was examined by 26 articles of which 57% showed some correlation between therapeutic alliance and adherence. Age moderated the relationship between therapeutic alliance and adherence with younger individuals and an autonomy support environment reporting improved adherence. Prioritized goals, autonomy support and motivation were facilitators of therapeutic alliance.ConclusionTherapeutic Alliance has been studied in a limited extent in the rehabilitation literature with conflicting frameworks and findings. Potential benefits described for enhancing therapeutic alliance might include better exercise adherence. Several knowledge gaps have been identified with a potential for generating future research priorities for therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal rehabilitation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2311-3) contains supplementary material, wh...

BackgroundNonadherence to treatment remains high among patients with musculoskeletal conditions with negative impact on the treatment outcomes, use of personal and cost of care. An active knowledge translation (KT) strategy may be an effective strategy to support practice change. The purpose of this study was to deliver a brief, interactive, multifaceted and targeted KT program to improve physiotherapist knowledge and confidence in performing adherence enhancing activities related to risk, barriers, assessment and interventions.MethodsWe utilised a 2-phase approach in this KT project. Phase 1 involved the development of an adherence tool kit following a synthesis of the literature and an iterative process involving 47 end-users. Clinicians treating patients with musculoskeletal conditions were recruited from two Physiotherapy and Occupational therapy national conferences in Canada. The intervention, based on the acronym SIMPLE TIPS was tested on 51 physiotherapists in phase 2. A pre- and post-repeated measures design was used in Phase 2. Graham’s knowledge-to-action cycle was used as the conceptual framework. Participants completed a pre—intervention assessment, took part in a 1-h educational session and completed a post—intervention assessment. A questionnaire was used to measure knowledge of evidence—based treatment adherence barriers, interventions and measures and confidence to perform evidence—based adherence practice activities. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage), Fisher’s exact test and Wilcoxon Sign-Ranked tests.ResultsBarriers and facilitators of adherence were identified under three domains (therapist, patient, health system) in phase 1. Seventy percent of the participants completed the questionnaire. Results indicated that 46.8% of respondents explored barriers including the use of behaviour change strategies and 45.7% reported that they measured adherence but none reported the use of validated outcomes. A significant improvement in post-self-efficacy scores for the four adherence enhancing activities was observed immediately after the workshop.ConclusionThe use of a multi-modal KT intervention is feasible in an educational setting. A brief interactive educational session was successfully implemented using a toolkit and caused a significant increase in physiotherapists’ knowledge and confidence at performing adherence enhancing activities in the very short-term. Further testing of SIMPLE TIPS on long-term adherence practices could help advance best practices specific to treatment adherence in MSK practice.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40945-016-0029-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Ineffective coping has been linked to prolonged pain, distress, anxiety, and depression after a hand and upper limb injury. Evidence shows that interventions based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be effective in improving treatment outcomes, but traditional psychological interventions are resource intensive and unrealistic in busy hand therapy practices. Developing web-based, evidence-based psychological interventions specifically for hand therapy may be feasible in clinical practice and at home with reduced training and travel costs. Hand Therapy Online Coping Skills (HOCOS) is a program developed to supplement traditional hand therapy with therapist-assisted coping skills training based on principles from CBT and the Technology Acceptance Model. Objective This study aimed to describe the development and assess the usability of HOCOS to support hand therapists in the management of psychosocial problems. Methods The ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) of system design was applied to create HOCOS. The usability testing of HOCOS involved a 2-stage process. In the first step, heuristic testing with information and communications technology (ICT) experts was completed using two sets of heuristics: Monkman heuristics and the Health Literacy Online (HLO) checklist. The second step involved user testing with hand therapists performing a series of online and face-to-face activities, completing 12 tasks on the website using the think-aloud protocol, completing the system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire, and a semistructured feedback interview in 2 iterative cycles. Descriptive statistics and content analyses were used to organize the data. Results In total, 4 ICT experts and 12 therapists completed usability testing. The heuristic evaluation revealed 15 of 35 violations on the HLO checklist and 5 of 11 violations on the Monkman heuristics. Initially, hand therapists found 5 tasks to be difficult but were able to complete all 12 tasks after the second cycle of testing. The cognitive interview findings were organized into 6 themes: task performance, navigation, design esthetics, content, functionality and features, and desire for future use. Usability issues identified were addressed in two iterative cycles. There was good agreement on all items of the SUS. Overall, therapists found that HOCOS was a detailed and helpful learning resource for therapists and patients. Conclusions We describe the development and usability testing of HOCOS; a new web-based psychosocial intervention for individuals with a hand and upper limb injuries. HOCOS targets psychosocial problems linked to prolonged pain and disability by increasing access to therapist-guided coping skills training. We actively involved target users in the development and usability evaluation of the website. The final website was modified to meet the needs and preferences of the participants.

No abstract

Initiation of HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Nigeria was restricted to secondary and tertiary level hospitals due to weak health systems in primary health centres (PHCs). Shell Petroleum Development Company (SDPC) Nigeria and FHI 360 using a systems strengthening approach, piloted ART enrolment in a PHC in south-eastern Nigeria. This study sought to evaluate patients’ adherence and mortality on ART, and associated risk factors. We reviewed clinic records of adult patients initiating ART between January 2007 and December 2009. Adherence was calculated as the number of days of medication dispensed as a percentage of total number of days evaluated. Outcome measures were probability of being alive and retained in care at 12 and 24 months on ART. Competing risks regression models were used to assess potential predictors associated with mortality. Total of 196 patients (64.8% males) were initiated on ART. Patients’ median age was 35 years (IQR 30–44); median CD4 at initiation was 132 cells/mm3 (IQR 82–212), Patients in WHO stage III and IV constituted 73 (37.6%) and 83 (42.8%) respectively. Majority (108 [55.1%]) of patients had adherence rates >95%. Adherence levels ranged: 70–85%, 50–65% and <50% in 29 (14.8%), 30 (15.3%) and 29 (14.8%) of patients respectively. Nucleoside backbone use were AZT/3TC (69.4%) d4T/3TC (28.6%) and TDF/FTC (2%). At 12 months of follow up, 80.6% (158) were alive and on ART, mortality accounted for 12.8% (25), 11 (5.6%) were LTFU and 2 (1.1%) transferred out. At 24 months on ART survival decreased to 64.3% (126), 20.4% (40) died, 9.2% (18) were LTFU and 12 (6.1%) transferred out. Competing risks regression models revealed that patients’ factors significantly associated with mortality include: bedridden patients (HR=3.6 [95% CI: 1.11–11.45], p=0.03, referent: working), <50% adherence levels (HR=27.7 [95% CI: 8.55–89.47], p<0.0001, referent: >95% adherence level). In conclusion, majority of attrition was due to mortality. Poor adherence was associated with 27 times higher risk of death compared with patients with >95% adherence. Mortality is likely to reduce by establishing a more robust adherence counselling process.