RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Advancing the practice of physiotherapy.
The Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada has awarded more than $1.25 million to Canadian physiotherapy researchers and students pursuing research and academic careers during its 27 year history. PFC is proud of the research that it has supported and the work of Canada's leading physiotherapy researchers who are actively involved in advancing knowledge about healthcare issues that confront physiotherapy clinicians.
In an era where third-party payers demand proof of the efficacy of specific interventions, these studies are extremely important for the profession. They are helping to provide a body of knowledge for clinicians who are in touch with the needs of the patient and require evidenced-based knowledge.
Here are highlights from a few of the projects that PFC has been proud to support:
Does It Matter Which Exercise?
Matching the right exercise to the right individual does make a difference. This was the key finding from research conducted by Audrey Long, Director of the Bonavista Physiotherapy Clinic, and her research team on managing low back pain. This randomized control trial produced evidence to justify specific treatments for specific types of patients with low-back pain. Patient recovery was rapidly improved and they were able to reduce their medications. In contrast, other treatment groups showed less improvement and a 3% dropped out rate within two weeks because of the lack of treatment effects.
Article: Does it Matter Which Exercise? A Randomized Control Trial of Exercise for Low Back Pain (2004) Audrey Long, BScPT, Ron Donelson, MD, Tak Fung, PhD. Published in Spine 2005; 29:2593-2602
Studying A Baby’s First Steps Helps Improve Quality of Life For Canadians
While studying at the University of Alberta Marco Pang received an Ann Collins Whitmore scholarship to support research to understand how the nervous system controls walking in humans. To do this, the researchers observed the stepping behavior in human infants. From this work, Marco and his research team learned that the spinal cord has many individual elements for walking that seem to function by themselves. These elements are the same ones that therapists must rely on when designing programs for the rehabilitation of clients with spinal injuries. After an accident or a stroke, many of the challenges facing a client in rehabilitation can be similar to the challenges of a baby taking its first steps. The insights gained from this research will aid the development of more effective rehabilitation strategies for individuals with injury to the central nervous system.
Article: Infant stepping: a window to the behavior of the human pattern generator for walking by Jaynie F. Yang, Tania Lam, Marco Y.C. Pang, Erin Lamont, Kristin Musselman and Elizabeth Seinen, Canadian Journal of Physiology & Pharmacology, 2004; 82 (8-9):662-74.
Research Study Investigates Effect of Frequent Computer Use
According to a pilot study conducted in 2000 by Dr. François Tremblay, Director of the Physiotherapy Program at the University of Ottawa, and his research team, sensory messages sent to the brain during highly repetitive tasks degrade the representation of the hand within the brain and eventually lead to sensory and motor problems. The study investigated whether changes in tactile perception and manual dexterity could be measured in people working on keyboards. Using tests to learn how well people could recognize gratings, estimate roughness, and measure manual dexterity, the research showed that early signs of hand function deterioration were observed more often in women than in men who were constantly exposed to computer tasks. The loss of tactile spatial acuity found in female frequent users was interpreted as a possible early consequence of the degraded sensory representation of the brain resulting from constant repetitions of fine motor tasks.
Article: Tactile perception and manual dexterity in computer users. François Tremblay, Annie-claude Mireault, Julie Lâetourneau, Audrey Pierrat and Shannon Bourrassa. In: Somatosensory & Motor Research 2002; 19:101-108