Date of Award
Spring 2020
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology; College of Arts & Sciences
First Advisor
Alison Clabaugh
Abstract
A major problem in the field of physical therapy is the lack of patient adherence to home exercise program prescriptions. Non-adherence to these exercise programs is as high as 70% according to the research. There must be an underlying mechanism because the type of non-adherent patients is not exclusively based on condition or injury. Past research has centered around two fields of thought for motivation, self-determination and self-efficacy, as well as practitioner intervention to increase these psychological principles in patients. Self-determination is present because while doing physical therapy exercises is not intrinsically enjoyable, patients can be extrinsically motivated by their goals of health. There’s an importance of self-efficacy because patients have to believe they can do the exercises in order to perform them and they set expectations for a rehabilitation outcome to achieve. Interventions to increase adherence behaviors have shown to increase self-determination and self-efficacy in people, while rising adherence rates. This shows that practitioner intervention can be provided to patients to increase adherence behaviors. Additional research has attempted to combine both theories to understand non-adherent behavior and developed a proposed model that accounts for deficits in these principles individually. The proposed model should be the impetus to more accurately figuring out why patients do not adhere to their physical therapy home exercise prescriptions and how physical therapists can help boost patient self-determination and self-efficacy in order to increase adherence.
Recommended Citation
Rader, Keith, "Physical Therapy Adherence: An Exploration into Motivation" (2020). Capstone Showcase. 2.
https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/showcase/2020/psychology/2
Physical Therapy Adherence: An Exploration into Motivation
A major problem in the field of physical therapy is the lack of patient adherence to home exercise program prescriptions. Non-adherence to these exercise programs is as high as 70% according to the research. There must be an underlying mechanism because the type of non-adherent patients is not exclusively based on condition or injury. Past research has centered around two fields of thought for motivation, self-determination and self-efficacy, as well as practitioner intervention to increase these psychological principles in patients. Self-determination is present because while doing physical therapy exercises is not intrinsically enjoyable, patients can be extrinsically motivated by their goals of health. There’s an importance of self-efficacy because patients have to believe they can do the exercises in order to perform them and they set expectations for a rehabilitation outcome to achieve. Interventions to increase adherence behaviors have shown to increase self-determination and self-efficacy in people, while rising adherence rates. This shows that practitioner intervention can be provided to patients to increase adherence behaviors. Additional research has attempted to combine both theories to understand non-adherent behavior and developed a proposed model that accounts for deficits in these principles individually. The proposed model should be the impetus to more accurately figuring out why patients do not adhere to their physical therapy home exercise prescriptions and how physical therapists can help boost patient self-determination and self-efficacy in order to increase adherence.