Abstract
Objective: To investigate manual therapist's knowledge and beliefs of working with Transplantee Athletes (TxA) at Transplant Games.
Design: On-line questionnaire
Participants: Thirty present and previous members of Transplant Sport ‘therapy team’ (age; 35 ±14 years, 24 female).
Main outcome measures: Questions concerned demographics and general information on the background of the therapists. Closed questions with rating statements concerning beliefs when treating TxA and open questions asking for advice the participants would give to colleagues and further information they would like to have available to them.
Results: TxA were thought to be a vulnerable group of athletes requiring special precautions and considerations. Two areas of information evolved: “general advice for TxA management” and “specific advice for therapists”. General advice was to understand TxAs and be vigilant with hygiene. Specific therapy advice was to avoid grade V manipulations and care with taping and massage, because of complications resulting from side effects of long-term medication.
Conclusion: There appears to be a lack of research-based evidence to guide practitioners in their management of TxAs. Generic, good advice is now available from experienced practitioners however there is a paucity of research evidence to support this. Thus, there is a potential danger of being overcautious in approaches to treatment which ultimately may impact on athletic performance.
Design: On-line questionnaire
Participants: Thirty present and previous members of Transplant Sport ‘therapy team’ (age; 35 ±14 years, 24 female).
Main outcome measures: Questions concerned demographics and general information on the background of the therapists. Closed questions with rating statements concerning beliefs when treating TxA and open questions asking for advice the participants would give to colleagues and further information they would like to have available to them.
Results: TxA were thought to be a vulnerable group of athletes requiring special precautions and considerations. Two areas of information evolved: “general advice for TxA management” and “specific advice for therapists”. General advice was to understand TxAs and be vigilant with hygiene. Specific therapy advice was to avoid grade V manipulations and care with taping and massage, because of complications resulting from side effects of long-term medication.
Conclusion: There appears to be a lack of research-based evidence to guide practitioners in their management of TxAs. Generic, good advice is now available from experienced practitioners however there is a paucity of research evidence to support this. Thus, there is a potential danger of being overcautious in approaches to treatment which ultimately may impact on athletic performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 114-119 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Physical Therapy in Sport |
| Volume | 39 |
| Early online date | 16 Jul 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2019 |
Bibliographical note
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Physical Therapy in Sport. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Physical Therapy in Sport, 39, (2019) DOI: 10.1016/j.ptsp.2019.07.003© 2019, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Keywords
- Rehabilitation
- Sport
- Transplant recipients
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
- Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation