ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2022
Clinical exercise provision in the UK: comparison of staff job titles, roles and qualifications across five specialised exercise services.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Factors associated with programme completion and physical activity adherence in a community-based cancer exercise programme.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Exploration of the clinical exercise physiologist standards in the UK: are they fit for purpose and how could they be developed?BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- How are clinical exercise physiology postgraduate courses taught and assessed in the UK? A multimethod qualitative exploration.BMJ open · 2025Article
- A multi-method exploration of a cardiac rehabilitation service delivered by registered Clinical Exercise Physiologists in the UK: key learnings for current and new services.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Establishment of clinical exercise physiology as a regulated healthcare profession in the UK: a progress report.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Review
- Exercise professional education, qualifications, and certifications: a content analysis of job postings in the United States.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Exercise instructors are not consistently implementing the strength component of the UK chief medical officers' physical activity guidelines in their exercise prescription for older adults.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Promoting physical activity to patients: a scoping review of the perceptions of doctors in the United Kingdom.Systematic reviews · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesIn the UK, the National Health Service long-term plan advocates exercise as a key component of clinical services, but there is no clearly defined workforce to deliver the plan. We aimed to provide an overview of current UK clinical exercise services, focusing on exercise staff job titles, roles and qualifications across cardiovascular, respiratory, stroke, falls and cancer services.
methodsClinical exercise services were identified electronically between May 2020 and September 2020 using publicly available information from clinical commissioning groups, national health boards and published audit data. Data relating to staff job titles, roles, qualifications and exercise delivery were collected via electronic records and telephone/email contact with service providers.
resultsData were obtained for 731 of 890 eligible clinical services (216 cardiac, 162 respiratory, 129 stroke, 117 falls, 107 cancer). Cardiac rehabilitation services provided both clinical (phase III) and community (phase IV) exercise interventions delivered by physiotherapists, exercise physiologists (exercise specific BSc/MSc) and exercise instructors (vocationally qualified with or without BSc/MSc). Respiratory, stroke and falls services provided a clinical exercise intervention only, mostly delivered by physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Cancer services provided a community exercise service only, delivered by vocationally qualified exercise instructors. Job titles of 'exercise physiologists' (n=115) bore little alignment to their qualifications, with a large heterogeneity across services.
conclusionIn the UK, clinical exercise services job titles, roles and qualifications were inconsistent. Regulation of exercise job titles and roles is required to remove the current disparities in this area.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.