Characteristics of therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and occupational therapy practice: A scoping review of the literature

© 2017 The Author(s). Background: Most conventional treatment for musculoskeletal conditions continue to show moderate effects, prompting calls for ways to increase effectiveness, including drawing from strategies used across other health conditions. Therapeutic alliance refers to the relational processes at play in treatment which can act in combination or independently of specific interventions. Current evidence guiding the use of therapeutic alliance in health care arises largely from psychotherapy and medicine literature. The objective of this review was to map out the available literature on therapeutic alliance conceptual frameworks, themes, measures and determinants in musculoskeletal rehabilitation across physiotherapy and occupational therapy disciplines. Methods: A scoping review of the literature published in English since inception to July 2015 was conducted using Medline, EMBASE, PsychINFO, PEDro, SportDISCUS, AMED, OTSeeker, AMED and the grey literature. A key search term strategy was employed using physiotherapy , occupational therapy , therapeutic alliance , and musculoskeletal to identify relevant studies. All searches were performed between December 2014 and July 2015 with an updated search on January 2017. Two investigators screened article title, abstract and full text review for articles meeting the inclusion criteria and extracted therapeutic alliance data and details of each study. Results: One hundred and thirty articles met the inclusion criteria including quantitative (33%), qualitative (39%), mixed methods (7%) and reviews and discussions (23%) and most data came from the USA (23%). Randomized trials and systematic reviews were 4.6 and 2.3% respectively. Low back pain condition (22%) and primary care (30.7%) were the most reported condition and setting respectively. One theory, 9 frameworks, 26 models, 8 themes and 42 subthemes of therapeutic alliance were identified. Twenty-six measures were identified; the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) was the most utilized measure (13%). Most of the therapeutic alliance themes extracted were from patient perspectives. The relationship between adherence and therapeutic alliance was examined by 26 articles of which 57% showed some correlation between therapeutic alliance and adherence. Age moderated the relationship between therapeutic alliance and adherence with younger individuals and an autonomy support environment reporting improved adherence. Prioritized goals, autonomy support and motivation were facilitators of therapeutic alliance. Conclusion: Therapeutic Alliance has been studied in a limited extent in the rehabilitation literature with conflicting frameworks and findings. Potential benefits described for enhancing therapeutic alliance might include better exercise adherence. Several knowledge gaps have been identified with a potential for generating future research priorities for therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal rehabilitation

Linking of the American academy of orthopaedic surgeons distal radius fracture clinical practice guidelines to the international classification of functioning, disability, and health; international classification of diseases; and ICF core sets for hand conditions

© American Association for Hand Surgery 2016. Background: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) distal radius fracture (DRF) clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are readily available to clinicians, patients, and policymakers. International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) provides a framework for describing the impact of health conditions. The International Classification of Diseases-10th Revision (ICD-10) is a classification system to classify health conditions as specific disease or disorders. The aim of this study is to analyze and describe the scope and focus of the AAOS DRF CPG using the ICF and ICD-10 as a basis for content analysis, and to compare the content of the CPG with the ICF hand core sets as the reference standard. Methods: Established linking rules were used by 2 independent raters to analyze the 29 recommendations of the AAOS DRF CPG. ICD-10 codes were assigned in the same process. Summary linkage statistics were used to describe the results for ICF and the hand core sets. Results: Among the 29 recommendations of the AAOS DRF CPG, 5 meaningful concepts were linked to the ICF codes. Of these, 5 codes appeared on the comprehensive ICF core set and only 3 codes appeared in the brief ICF core set, and 7 conditions were covered in ICD-10 codes. Conclusions: The AAOS DRF CPG focuses on surgical interventions and has minimal linkage to the constructs of the ICD-10 and ICF. It does not address activity or participation (disability), and is not well linked to key concepts relevant to hand conditions

Macroeconomic variables and the E/P ratio: Is inflation really positively associated with the E/P ratio?

We examine the economywide E/P ratio both over a long time period (1952–2003) and by dividing the entire period into subperiods. We have two main objectives. First, we reexamine the puzzling result documented by Modigliani and Cohn (1979), who find that, contrary to theory, the economy wide E/P ratio and inflation are positively correlated. Our longer period of analysis allows us to divide the entire period into subperiods with differing macroeconomic environments. We find that the Modigliani and Cohn anomaly is period specific. The association between the E/P ratio and inflation reverses from one period to another. Hence, the relation between inflation and the economywide E/P ratio is not stable over a long time period. Second, we analyze the associations between the economywide E/P ratio and its two main drivers as given by the Gordon (1962) model. We find that the economywide E/P ratio (a) is not associated with the real interest rate and (b) is weakly negatively associated with the expected growth rate. Findings for inflation do not change when we include or exclude other E/P drivers in regression specifications. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006P/E ratio, Inflation,