Perspectives of musculoskeletal physical therapists on the usability of telerehabilitation services: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telerehabilitation in musculoskeletal physical therapy, necessitating an evaluation of therapists’ perspectives on its usability in practice.

Objective

To investigate the perspective of musculoskeletal physical therapists about the usability of telerehabilitation services in their practice in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

This cross-sectional research was conducted among physical therapists in Saudi Arabia who are specialized in treating musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Participants were recruited utilizing convenience sampling. The perspective of the physiotherapists of usability of telerehabilitation was measured by the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ).

Results

This study included 392 participants (female 58.4%) with mean age of 28.75 (SD 4.83) years old. The analysis found that female participants, consultants, and those with clinical experience of >10 years, each achieved a higher overall TUQ score. Most participants utilized the synchronous method of telerehabilitation (67.6%). Telerehabilitation was commonly utilized for monitoring and following-up patients (37.3%), and the frequently managed conditions were neck pain (55.1%) and age-related and chronic conditions (53.7%). The average total score of the TUQ among participants was 4.92 (SD 1.24), with the highest scores for the subdomains ease of use and usefulness and the lowest for the reliability subdomain. The TUQ score for the synchronous and asynchronous types of telerehabilitation were 4.72 and 4.94, respectively.

Conclusions

The use of telerehabilitation was positively perceived among physical therapists. They agreed that telerehabilitation is a usable model for delivering care in the musculoskeletal field, especially for follow-up and patient monitoring.