ArticleBMC health services research2008
Comparing patient characteristics and treatment processes in patients receiving physical therapy in the United States, Israel and the Netherlands: cross sectional analyses of data from three clinical databases.
Article in BMC health services research, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physician referrals of patients with neck and low back pain for physical therapy in outpatient clinics: a cross-sectional study.Israel journal of health policy research · 2025Article
- Physical therapy registries worldwide: A systematic review.Health science reports · 2024Review
- Attitudes toward the integration of nutritional assessment and counseling in the framework of physical therapy: a cross-sectional survey.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Lymphoedema, a significant health problem in Israel: A descriptive community-based study.International wound journal · 2023Observational
- Strategies to integrate physiotherapists into primary health care in South Africa.The South African journal of physiotherapy · 2023Article
- Therapist perceptions of the Danish Physiotherapy Research Database for assessing patients with chronic disease.PloS one · 2021Article
- Occupational Health Physiotherapy (OHP) Practice: A Comparison between Japan and Australia.Physical therapy research · 2021Review
- Article
- Outpatient Physical Therapist Attitudes Toward and Behaviors in Cardiovascular Disease Screening: A National Survey.Physical therapy · 2019Article
- Characteristics, course and outcome of patients receiving physiotherapy in primary health care in Norway: design of a longitudinal observational project.BMC health services research · 2018Observational
- Pain pattern classification and directional preference are associated with clinical outcomes for patients with low back pain.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy · 2018Article
- Utilization and out of pocket (OOP) payment for physiotherapy services in public hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2018Article
- Calibration and validation of an item bank for measuring general physical function of patients in medical rehabilitation settings.Patient related outcome measures · 2018Article
- Clinical course and prognosis of musculoskeletal pain in patients referred for physiotherapy: does pain site matter?BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2017Article
- Comparison of 2 Multimodal Interventions With and Without Whole Body Vibration Therapy Plus Traction on Pain and Disability in Patients With Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain.Journal of chiropractic medicine · 2016Article
- Exploring physiotherapists' personality traits that may influence treatment outcome in patients with chronic diseases: a cohort study.BMC health services research · 2015Article
- The effect of patient, provider and financing regulations on the intensity of ambulatory physical therapy episodes: a multilevel analysis based on routinely available data.BMC health services research · 2015Article
- Single-item screens identified patients with elevated levels of depressive and somatization symptoms in outpatient physical therapy.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2012Article
- Clinician's ability to identify neck and low back interventions: an inter-rater chance-corrected agreement pilot study.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy · 2011Article
- Depressive symptoms, anatomical region, and clinical outcomes for patients seeking outpatient physical therapy for musculoskeletal pain.Physical therapy · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMany assume that outcomes from physical therapy research in one country can be generalized to other countries. However, no well designed studies comparing outcomes among countries have been conducted. In this exploratory study, our goal was to compare patient demographics and treatment processes in outpatient physical therapy practice in the United States, Israel and the Netherlands.
methodsCross-sectional data from three different clinical databases were examined. Data were selected for patients aged 18 years and older and started an episode of outpatient therapy between January 1st 2005 and December 31st 2005. Results are based on data from approximately 63,000 patients from the United States, 100,000 from Israel and 12,000 from the Netherlands.
resultsAge, gender and the body part treated were similar in the three countries. Differences existed in episode duration of the health problem, with more patients with chronic complaints treated in the United States and Israel compared to the Netherlands. In the United States and Israel, physical agents and mechanical modalities were applied more often than in the Netherlands. The mean number of visits per treatment episode, adjusted for age, gender, and episode duration, varied from 8 in Israel to 11 in the United States and the Netherlands.
conclusionThe current study showed that clinical databases can be used for comparing patient demographic characteristics and for identifying similarities and differences among countries in physical therapy practice. However, terminology used to describe treatment processes and classify patients was different among databases. More standardisation is required to enable more detailed comparisons. Nevertheless the differences found in number of treatment visits per episode imply that one has to be careful to generalize outcomes from physical therapy research from one country to another.
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