Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 11;9(1):e33609.
doi: 10.2196/33609.

An Investigation Into the Use of mHealth in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy: Scoping Review

Jonathon M R Agnew #  1 , Catherine E Hanratty #  1 , Joseph G McVeigh #  2 , Chris Nugent #  3 , Daniel P Kerr #  1
Affiliations

An Investigation Into the Use of mHealth in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy: Scoping Review

Jonathon M R Agnew et al. JMIR Rehabil Assist Technol. .

Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal physiotherapy provides conservative management for a range of conditions. Currently, there is a lack of engagement with exercise programs because of the lack of supervision and low self-efficacy. The use of mobile health (mHealth) interventions could be a possible solution to this problem, helping promote self-management at home. However, there is little evidence for musculoskeletal physiotherapy on the most effective forms of mHealth.

Objective: The aim of this review is to investigate the literature focusing on the use of mHealth in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and summarize the evidence.

Methods: A scoping review of 6 peer-reviewed databases was conducted in March 2021. No date limits were applied, and only articles written in the English language were selected. A reviewer screened all the articles, followed by 2 additional researchers screening a random sample before data extraction.

Results: Of the 1393 studies, 28 (2.01%) were identified. Intervention characteristics comprised stretching and strengthening exercises, primarily for degenerative joint pain and spinal conditions (5/28, 18%). The most reported use of mHealth included telephone and videoconferencing calls to provide a home exercise program or being used as an adjunct to physiotherapy musculoskeletal assessment (14/28, 50%). Although patient satisfaction with mHealth was reported to be high, reasons for disengagement included a lack of high-quality information and poor internet speeds. Barriers to clinical uptake included insufficient training with the intervention and a lack of time to become familiar.

Conclusions: mHealth has some benefits regarding treatment adherence and can potentially be as effective as normal physiotherapy care while being more cost-effective. The current use of mHealth is most effective when ongoing feedback from a health care professional is available.

Keywords: mHealth; mobile phone; musculoskeletal; physiotherapy; rehabilitation; scoping review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flow diagram. mHealth: mobile health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hawker GA. The assessment of musculoskeletal pain. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2017;35 Suppl 107(5):8–12. http://www.clinexprheumatol.org/pubmed/find-pii.asp?pii=28967361 12202 - PubMed
    1. Amorim AB, Pappas E, Simic M, Ferreira ML, Jennings M, Tiedemann A, Carvalho-E-Silva AP, Caputo E, Kongsted A, Ferreira PH. Integrating mobile-health, health coaching, and physical activity to reduce the burden of chronic low back pain trial (IMPACT): a pilot randomised controlled trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2019 Feb 11;20(1):71. doi: 10.1186/s12891-019-2454-y. https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891... 10.1186/s12891-019-2454-y - DOI - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chou R, Deyo R, Friedly J, Skelly A, Hashimoto R, Weimer M, Fu R, Dana T, Kraegel P, Griffin J, Grusing S, Brodt ED. Nonpharmacologic therapies for low back pain: a systematic review for an American college of physicians clinical practice guideline. Ann Intern Med. 2017 Apr 04;166(7):493–505. doi: 10.7326/M16-2459. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7326/M16-2459?url_ver=Z39.88-2003... 2603230 - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gonçalves-Bradley DC, Iliffe S, Doll H, Broad J, Gladman J, Langhorne P, Richards SH, Shepperd S. Early discharge hospital at home. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Jun 26;6:CD000356. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000356.pub4. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/28651296 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kongsted A, Kent P, Hestbaek L, Vach W. Patients with low back pain had distinct clinical course patterns that were typically neither complete recovery nor constant pain. A latent class analysis of longitudinal data. Spine J. 2015 May 01;15(5):885–94. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2015.02.012. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1529-9430(15)00110-2 S1529-9430(15)00110-2 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources