Abstract
Background
Children are referred to primary care physiotherapy services for a variety of reasons, ranging from concerns for motor development to the need for extensive habilitation services. There is limited knowledge about their characteristics and outcome. The aim of this study was to describe the variation in baseline demographical and clinical characteristics as well as treatment outcome at follow-up six months after baseline.
Methods
Children referred to primary care physiotherapy in a municipality in Norway were invited to participate in this longitudinal observational study. The children’s demographics, causes of referral, functional diagnoses, influence on their daily activities, main goals and planned treatments were registered at baseline. Goal attainment and treatment compliance were registered at follow-up maximum six months after baseline.
Results
Baseline characteristics were registered for 148 children by the physiotherapist and for 101 (68.2%) children by their parents. Half of the children were referred from child health care centres due to concerns for motor development, asymmetry and orthopaedic conditions, and most of these children were below the age of one year. There was partly agreement between causes of referral and the physiotherapists’ functional diagnoses. The children’s daily activities were little affected by the problem or complaint for which they were referred. About a third of the children needed only examination. Follow-up data was registered for 64 children. The majority achieved their main treatment goal and the treatment was carried out as planned.
Conclusions
This study describes the profile of a broad spectrum of children referred to physiotherapy in primary health care in Norway. Our findings may guide further interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge transfer between professionals involved in child health care with the goal to balance the use of resources to the need for physiotherapy.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03626389. Registered on August 13th 2018 (retrospectively registered).
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