Impact of direct access on the quality of primary care musculoskeletal physiotherapy: a scoping review from a patient, provider, and societal perspective.

Introduction: Worldwide many countries provide direct access in physiotherapy. The aim of this scoping review was to synthesize the available evidence on the quality of primary care musculoskeletal physiotherapy from different perspectives. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in three databases up to September 2022. Studies were included when regarding assessment of at least one of the following perspectives: patient (quality of Life, patient satisfaction, pain, functioning, adverse events), provider (treatment compliance, responsibility, liability, status, prestige, job satisfaction), and society (number of referrals, amount of medical imaging, medication use, number of sessions needed for rehabilitation, and overall costs and cost-effectiveness). Selection and methodological quality assessment of systematic reviews were performed. Data extraction and analysis were performed separately for systematic reviews and individual primary studies. Results: Five systematic reviews as well as 17 primary studies were included. From a patient perspective, no significant effect of direct access was found for pain and a tendency in favour of direct access was found for quality of life, functioning, and well-being. Concerning providers, higher treatment compliance was found in direct access to physiotherapy and decision-making was more accurate. From a societal perspective, significant differences in favour of direct access physiotherapy were found for waiting time, prescribed medication, and medical imaging. In addition, there was a tendency towards lower health care costs. Conclusions: Emerging evidence suggests that direct access physiotherapy could provide at least equal quality of care for patients and better opportunities for providers and the society on selected outcomes.

Does Mental Fatigue Negatively Affect Outcomes of Functional Performance Tests?

PURPOSE: Mental fatigue impairs psychomotor skill performance by affecting visuomotor reaction time, accuracy, and decision-making. Recently, neurocognitive functional performance tests (FPT) that integrate these outcomes have been developed. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of mental fatigue on traditional and neurocognitive FPT in healthy adults. METHODS: Fourteen volunteers (four women; mean ± SD age, 22 ± 1 yr; height, 176.9 ± 8.4 cm; weight, 69.7 ± 10.4 kg) participated in a randomized counterbalanced crossover design. A 100% incongruent Stroop color word test of 90 min was used to induce mental fatigue and the control task encompassed watching a 90-min documentary. Traditional FPT comprised a single-leg hop for distance, countermovement jump, and Y-balance test, whereas the neurocognitive FPT encompassed the reactive balance test (RBT). All FPTs were evaluated pre-post the 90-min task. Mental fatigue was assessed using the Stroop task, visual analog scale for mental fatigue, and the Eriksen-Flanker task. RESULTS: Mental fatigue was successfully induced, as shown by a significant increase in visual analog scale for mental fatigue (P < 0.001), with no decrease in performance on the Stroop and Eriksen-Flanker task. No interaction effect of mental fatigue was found for the Y-balance test, single-leg hop, and countermovement jump. For the RBT accuracy, a significant interaction effect of mental fatigue and time was observed (P = 0.024), with participants performing significantly worse when mentally fatigued. No interaction effect or main effect of condition and time was observed when considering the effect of mental fatigue on visuomotor reaction time in the RBT. CONCLUSIONS: Mental fatigue negatively affects a neurocognitive FPT, indicated by a decreased accuracy in response to visual stimuli in the RBT. Traditional FPT remained unaffected by mental fatigue.

Does Acute Fatigue Negatively Affect Intrinsic Risk Factors of the Lower Extremity Injury Risk Profile? A Systematic and Critical Review.

BACKGROUND: Acute fatigue is hypothesized to alter lower extremity injury risk profiles by affecting intrinsic risk factors (i.e. single leg postural control, hamstring strength). However, no systematic overview exists that merges the insights into prospective lower extremity injury risk profiling with the effect of acute fatigue on functional test performance. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to identify the influence of acute fatigue on prospectively determined modifiable intrinsic risk factors for lower extremity injuries. DESIGN: Systematic review. METHODS: PubMed (MEDLINE), Web of Science, PEDro, and Cochrane Library were searched until 29 May 2019. Studies were eligible when the study outcomes encompassed intrinsic modifiable risk factors for lower extremity injury, an acute fatigue intervention, and included healthy athletes or physically active people. Intrinsic modifiable risk factors were identified through recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and the referenced original research papers were used to determine outcome measures associated with increased injury risk. RESULTS: Forty-three studies reported acute fatigue effects on modifiable risk factors, with eight studies matching all criteria for data-extraction. Acute fatigue can decrease single leg postural control, decrease ankle joint position sense, decrease isokinetic strength of hamstring and quadriceps muscles and can affect isokinetic hamstring:quadriceps ratios. CONCLUSION: Acute fatigue affects prospective intrinsic modifiable risk factors for lower extremity injury, indicating an altered injury risk profile for lateral ankle sprain, patellofemoral pain syndrome and hamstring injuries. Future research should allow for individual fatiguability as a relevant outcome, and merge insights from athlete-centred injury risk profiling and fatigue.