Do Physical Therapists Practice a Behavioral Medicine Approach? A Comparison of Perceived and Observed Practice Behaviors.
Johanna Fritz, Thomas Overmeer
PMID 37249532WHAT IT FOUND
Physical therapists in this study reported using behavioral medicine techniques far more often than independent experts observed in their actual patient consultations.
A complete biopsychosocial analysis was never performed in the 139 recorded visits.
Key findings
01A complete individual functional behavioral analysis including physical, psychological, and environmental factors was never performed in the observed consultations.
02Physical therapists self-reported assessing target behaviors in 43.9% of consultations, but independent experts observed this occurring in only 8.6%.
03The self-reported practice of the behavioral medicine approach was generally higher than the practice observed by independent researchers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The sample consisted of 23 physical therapists who were specifically interested in behavioral medicine and had prior training, so results may not apply to therapists with less interest or training. The observation protocol used broad criteria for marking a behavior as 'present', which may have led to an overestimation of the quality or depth of the behaviors performed. Only intrarater reliability was evaluated for the observation protocol, not interrater reliability. The study did not assess the therapists' actual knowledge of the behavioral medicine approach, so it is unclear if discrepancies arose from a lack of understanding or a lack of implementation.
Declared interests
The funder (AFA) played no role in the design, conduct, or reporting of this study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that therapists with positive attitudes toward behavioral medicine are actually implementing it. The study found a significant gap between intention and practice, with self-reports consistently overestimating the use of biopsychosocial techniques.