Building motivation and sustainability into the prescription and recommendations for physical activity and exercise therapy: the evidence

Abstract

Client adherence to exercises prescribed by a physical therapist is very important to successful treatment outcomes. Unfortunately, many clients struggle with adherence and thus efficient and effective motivational interventions are desirable. The purpose of this article was to review the available evidence for: 1) the modifiable factors associated with adherence to physical therapy recommended exercise and 2) the efficacy of exercise intervention efforts to make conclusions and suggestions toward practice. Articles were limited to English peer-reviewed journals and published from 1993 to 2008. Major findings from 13 studies were summarized based on common subtopics of: outcome expectations, self-efficacy expectations, cognitive-behavioural and educational interventions, and intervention medium. The review provided evidence for the importance of self-efficacy in exercise adherence to physical therapy, but it showed that current cognitive-behavioural interventions have had limited effectiveness. It was recommended that future research broaden the scope of predictor variables with social ecological designs, increase the length of prospective follow-up in assessments, include larger and more diverse samples, and focus on innovative aesthetic and affective-based intervention strategies.