Results
Seven-hundred and thirty-three Australian osteopaths (73.9%) indicated
they use exercise prescription ‘often’ in patient care. There was no
statistically significant difference of gender for Australian osteopaths
who use exercise prescription often compared to osteopaths who do not
use it often (p>0.05) (Table 1). Australian osteopaths who
often use exercise prescription were younger in both age and time in
practice (p<0.05), and reported a higher number of patient
visits and care hours per week (p<0.05) all with small to
medium effect sizes. Those Australian osteopaths with a postgraduate
qualification, and those who reported being a member of Sports Medicine
Australia were also more likely to use exercise prescription often,
compared to those who did not report these characteristics (Table 1).
Insert table 1
For patient assessment, Australian osteopaths who use exercise
prescription often were more than twice as likely to refer for
diagnostic imaging, and six times more likely to use orthopaedic
assessment in patient examination, compared to those who do not often
use exercise prescription (Table 2). Australian osteopaths who often use
exercise prescription were approximately 50% more likely to be
co-located with other osteopaths (ORc 1.48) and nearly twice as likely
to send referrals to exercise physiologists (ORc 1.90) (Supplementary
File 1).
Insert table 2
Australian osteopaths who often use exercise prescription in patient
care were more than eight times as likely to discuss physical activity
with their patients, compared to osteopaths who do not often use
exercise prescription (Table 3). Medication and occupational health and
safety were more than twice as likely to be discussed with patients by
osteopaths who reported use of exercise prescription often in patient
care (Table 3). Australian osteopaths who often use exercise
prescription were almost twice to discuss a range of other clinical
management strategies with patients compared to osteopaths who do not
often use exercise prescription (Table 3).
Osteopaths who often use exercise prescription were more than twice as
likely to treat postural disorders (ORc 2.13) and tendinopathies (ORc
2.28) and, compared to those who do not often use exercise prescription
in patient care (Supplementary File 1). Australian osteopaths who often
use exercise prescription were three times more likely to treat patients
with sport injuries (ORc 3.37), and twice as likely to report treating
compensable work injury patients (ORc 2.40) (Supplementary File 1).
Osteopaths who often use exercise prescription were more than twice as
likely to use muscle energy technique and dry needling, and three times
more likely to more than 3x more likely to use soft tissue technique and
trigger point therapy (Table 3). Those osteopaths who often use exercise
prescription were also nearly six times more likely to use sports taping
compared to colleagues who do not often use exercise prescription (Table
3). However, osteopaths who often use exercise prescription were less
likely to use autonomic balancing, balanced ligamentous tension,
biodynamics, and Osteopathy in the Cranial Field techniques in patient
care (Table 3).
Australian osteopaths who often use exercise prescription in patient
care were nearly twice as likely to indicate expanded practice with
respect to prescribing rights (ORc 1.92) and twice as likely to seek
expanded referral rights to Sports Medicine specialists (ORc 2.37)
(Supplementary File 1).
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Adjusted odds ratios (ORa) for variables that were identified as being
statistically significant in the backward binary logistic regression
model are described in Table 4. Australian osteopaths who often use
exercise prescription were over five times more likely to discuss
physical activity with patients, compared to those who do not often use
exercise prescription in patient care.
Insert table 4