The rising cost of healthcare may make multiple physical therapy sessions difficult for patients to afford. However, a solution may be augmenting in-person sessions with at-home DVD instruction. A study compares their effectiveness.
“With the rising cost of healthcare, co-pays and deductibles have increased, putting more of the burden of healthcare costs on the patient. Multiple sessions of PT a week can be costly to patients and affect patient recovery,” states study author Jennifer Hopp, MD, in a media release.
Hopp, who practices in Modlothian, Va, presented her study, “Corrected Error Video vs. Physical Therapy Instructed Home Exercise Program: Accuracy of Performing Therapeutic Exercises,” recently during 25th Annual Meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, held in Dallas.
In her multi-center study, performed at the University of North Carolina and Houston Methodist in Texas, patients were taught four shoulder exercises, either in person with a physical therapist, or through a corrected error video (CEV) DVD. After 1 week of practice, the patients were evaluated on how well they performed those exercises, explains the release from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.
No difference was found in how well the groups performed when graded using the total Shoulder Exam Assessment Tool (13.66 ± 0.29 versus 13.46 ± 0.30 for CEV versus PT, p-value 0.64), per the release.
“These results reinforce the possibility that PT videos can be used to augment traditional physical therapy sessions. Additionally, it may be a better media to demonstrate exercises than the traditional paper handouts that are often provided after a physical therapy,” Hopp states in the release.
[Source(s): American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, Newswise]
