A survey of Canadian healthcare professionals’ practices regarding reactive balance training

ABSTRACT

Background: Perturbation-based balance training (PBT) is a relatively new type of balance training that aims to improve control of reactions to a loss of balance. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of use of PBT in clinical practice, and the most significant barriers and facilitators to implementing PBT in practice.

Methods: Health-care professionals across Canada (primarily physiotherapists and kinesiologists) who provide balance training to individuals with balance impairments and/or increased fall risk completed a questionnaire that asked about knowledge and use of PBT in practice.

Results: Overall, 76.3% of participants (299/392) reported that they had used PBT in their practices, with 22.4% (88/392) reporting regular PBT use. Lack of knowledge of PBT appeared to be the most significant barrier for those not currently using PBT in their practices, whereas individuals who were familiar with PBT and open to using it in practice experienced barriers related to training, knowledge, human resources, client characteristics, and the practice setting. More than 90% of respondents were interested in learning more about almost all aspects of PBT.

Conclusions: These findings could be used to inform development of future educational strategies to increase uptake of PBT in rehabilitation practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Rehabilitation
• postural balance
• accidental falls
• knowledge translation
• continuing education
• health-care surveys

Acknowledgments

We thank Anthony Aqui, Diedre Edwards, and Julianne Yu for their assistance with developing and pilot testing the questionnaire. We also acknowledge in-kind support from the Ontario Kinesiology Association, New Brunswick Kinesiology Association, Alberta Kinesiology Association, British Columbia Association of Kinesiologists, Canadian Physiotherapy Association, Ontario Physiotherapy Association, Newfoundland and Labrador Physiotherapy Association, Physiotherapy Association of the Yukon, Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island Physiotherapy Association, who kindly distributed the questionnaire to their members without charge. The authors also acknowledge the support of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute; equipment and space have been funded with grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Innovation Trust, and the Ministry of Research and Innovation. AM holds a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MSH 141983). NMS holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation Mid-Career Investigator Award.

Declaration of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation; Canadian Institutes of Health Research [MSH 141983]; Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada;Ontario Innovation Trust;Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science.