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Truong, Linda Lan Khue

University of British Columbia

Exercise therapy is a cornerstone of sport-related knee injury rehabilitation. The benefits of exercise therapy hinge on how closely a patient’s exercise behaviour matches their prescription. Social support is consistently recognized as a strong facilitator of exercise behaviour in other fields, but its value for exercise therapy in rehabilitation is unclear. This dissertation includes four studies that explore the relationship between social support and exercise therapy behaviour following a sport-related knee injury, including in the context of a physiotherapist-led virtual education and exercise therapy program (Stop OsteoARthritis; SOAR). Study one is a scoping review that synthesized evidence about social, psychological, and contextual factors that influence sport-related knee injury recovery and identified social support as a distinct and unique construct. Study two is a qualitative interpretive descriptive study that explored the perceptions of exercise in youth with sport-related knee injuries and found that balancing activity priorities, and reframing attitudes and beliefs towards exercising can promote exercise behaviour. Studies one and two informed the social support strategies integrated into the SOAR program. Study three is a qualitative descriptive design nested in a quasi-experimental study that assessed the feasibility of SOAR, including embedded social support strategies. These social support strategies were found to be acceptable, and participants reported that the SOAR program filled a gap in care by addressing their concerns for osteoarthritis and empowering them to manage their knee health. Finally, study four is a qualitative interpretive descriptive study nested in a randomized controlled trial that assessed the efficacy of the SOAR program and explored the relationship between perceived support and exercise behaviours. This study provided evidence that social support facilitated exercise behaviour, revealed how perceived support may promote exercise behaviour, and the critical role the therapeutic relationship plays in support being perceived as meaningful. Overall, these studies provide evidence that conflicts with long-held beliefs about how people with sport-related knee injuries perceive long-term knee health and osteoarthritis and demonstrate the positive influence social support has on exercise therapy behaviour amongst people with sport-related knee injuries.

Text

2024-10-31

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86142

Rehabilitation Sciences

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/