Sport Injury Rehabilitation Adherence: Perspectives of Recreational Athletes (Report‪)‬

Given the continual increase in the incidence of recreational sport-related injuries as well as the cost of these injuries to participants, their teams, and society at large, recreational sport injuries have emerged as a public health issue (Parkkari, Kujala, & Kannus, 2001). In the European Union, it is estimated that each year more than 10 million people sustain a recreational sport injury requiring medical attention, and more than five million injured recreational sport participants contact the accident and emergency departments of hospitals at a cost exceeding 10 billion Euros (Petridou et al., 2003). The repercussions of suffering sport-related injuries can be significant and long lasting for recreational participants including delayed physical recovery, loss of work, and sport participation time, the risk of long-term disability and consequently a reduced quality of life (Taylor & Taylor, 1997). There is burgeoning evidence that patient adherence to prescribed physical therapy is essential in order to achieve successful rehabilitation outcomes (Pizzari, Taylor, McBurney, & Feller, 2005). Despite this, non-adherence has been reported to be a key issue among sport participants (Heaney, 2006; Hemmings & Povey, 2002; Taylor & May, 1996). However, the exact nature of this problem is unclear. For instance, in a summary of studies, Brewer (1999) reported that adherence rates to sport injury rehabilitation programs varied between 40% and 91%. This variability maybe due to differences in the level of sport participation (Taylor & Marlow, 2001). For instance, a recent study by Niven (2007) investigating physiotherapists' perceptions of rehabilitation adherence in sport revealed elite athletes had relatively high levels of adherence. These results make intuitive sense given that elite athletes who make their living from sport are generally very motivated to regain sport involvement. Alternatively, Udry (1997) found very low levels of rehabilitation adherence among a sample of recreational participants. A possible explanation for this maybe due to participants' use of palliative coping strategies (e.g., self-help activities to alleviate the unpleasantness of a health problem) which were found to be associated with lower levels of rehabilitation adherence. As such, Gould, Udry, Bridges, and Beck (1997) concluded that physiotherapists may need to spend more time dealing with adherence issues among recreational athletes. These studies suggest that the issue of non-adherence may be more prevalent among recreational sport participants.