Clinical Course of Patients Receiving Physiotherapy Services in Primary Health Care

Summary

Background: Physiotherapists (PTs) in primary health care manage patients with a large variation in medical diagnosis, age, functional status, disability and prognosis. Lack of knowledge and systematically collected data about patients treated by PTs in primary health care has prompted this longitudinal observational physiotherapy project in Norway. This paper aims to describe a method for developing a database of patients managed by PTs in primary health care to study patients' characteristics, treatment courses and prognostic factors.

The study is a longitudinal observational project, following patients through physiotherapy treatment periods in primary health care in Norway and until one year after inclusion. The project involves both private practice and municipally employed PTs working in primary health care in eight municipalities in Norway. The participants are recruited to three different parts of the project depending on age and whether they are referred to a private practice or a municipally employed PT. All data are recorded electronically, transferred and stored securely. All patients complete extensive questionnaires providing information about demographics, disability and function, pain related variables, treatment and evaluation of treatment as well as clinical tests. The PTs have access to their own patients' data. The investigators have also prepared for linkage to national patient registers and population-based studies to be able to gather further important data.

This project will have important implications for physiotherapy services in primary health care. The database already contains almost 3000 patients, and data collection is ongoing. Preliminary analyses suggest that the patients included so far are representative of the larger population of patients treated by private practice or municipally employed PTs in Norway. This large scale prospective physiotherapy project will provide knowledge about the patient groups treated, treatment given as well as short and long term outcome of the patients.

Conditions

• Musculoskeletal Diseases or Conditions
• Neurologic Disorder
• Widespread Chronic Pain
• Psychosomatic Disorder
• Arthritis
• Injuries

Interventions

OTHER

Physiotherapy

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Norwegian Fund for Postgraduate Training in Physiotherapy

  collaborator OTHER

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  collaborator OTHER

• Trondheim Kommune

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Oslo

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nina K Vøllestad, PhD · University of Oslo

Eligibility

Min Age

0 Years

Max Age

125 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-06-01

Primary Completion

2021-06-30

Completion

2021-06-30

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations