ArticleJournal of evaluation in clinical practice2025
Measuring guideline adherence in physiotherapy: A scoping review of methodological approaches.
Article in Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Clinical Decision-Making and Guideline Alignment Among Brazilian Physical Therapists: Evidence From Standardized Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Vignettes.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2026Article
- Determinants and strategies for implementing guideline-adherent physiotherapy: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Implementation science promotes clinical practice of guidelines: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Measuring guideline adherence in physiotherapy: A scoping review of methodological approaches.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationaleClinical practice guidelines summarise the existing evidence on specific health conditions and aim to optimise quality of care by providing evidence-based recommendations. Studies have reported a gap between research findings and clinical practice in physiotherapy. Guideline adherence is often used as a measure of agreement between therapeutic care and guideline recommendations. However, there is currently no standardised methodological approach for measuring guideline adherence. AIMS AND
objectiveThe objective of this scoping review was to summarise the methods and results of studies that assessed guideline adherence in physiotherapy.
methodsMEDLINE, EMBASE, PEDro and CENTRAL databases were searched for relevant literature up to December 2022. Published reports of observational studies and controlled clinical trials that provided information on the assessment of guideline adherence in physiotherapists were included. The selection process was performed independently by two reviewers. The methodological quality of the identified reports was not assessed. Results were summarised narratively.
resultsFrom a total of 2560 potentially relevant records, 53 reports were included in the analysis. Physiotherapists' adherence to guidelines was primarily assessed in the context of musculoskeletal conditions, such as low back pain (n = 25, 47.2%) and osteoarthritis (n = 8, 15.1%). A wide range of measurement approaches were used with the majority of reports using web-based surveys (n = 21, 39.6%), followed by chart reviews (n = 17, 32.1%). Most reports (n = 21, 39.6%) provided information on the level of adherence in terms of frequency dichotomising (self-reported) clinical practice as adherent or non-adherent. Adherence rates varied widely between included reports.
conclusionsAlthough the large number of included reports indicates a high level of interest in the topic of guideline adherence, there is considerable heterogeneity between studies regarding the methodological approaches used to assess guideline adherence in physiotherapists. This reduces the comparability of the study results.
trial registrationINPLASY (registration no. 202250081). Registered on 12th May 2022.
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