Analysis of Physiotherapy Interventions for Musculoskeletal Disorders

This report examines the effectiveness of physiotherapy in treating musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The study focuses on three key research papers that explore the application of physiotherapy interventions, including internet-based assessments, diagnostic and therapeutic management for shoulder pain, and individualized physiotherapy for low back disorders. The report highlights the methodology, key findings, quality of the sources, and the implications for physiotherapy practice. The analysis reveals the positive impact of physiotherapy on pain reduction, improved physical function, and enhanced patient outcomes. The report concludes that physiotherapy interventions are effective in managing MSDs and emphasizes the importance of individualized treatment approaches. The references include studies from renowned journals, and the appendix provides search strategies and inclusion/exclusion criteria used in the literature review, demonstrating a thorough investigation into the subject matter.

Running head: PHYSIOTHERAPY
Physiotherapy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Area of Interest
Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are one of the most common and major causes for
generating pain in the human body and consequently MSD can cause disability in the human
body as well. As a consequences of this, this can also enhance the economic expenditure
related to the disease condition as well. The term musculoskeletal disorder includes a wide
range of diseases and in most of the cases, it is reported that most of the cases, the primary
symptoms of the MSD is pain and thus it has become the major symptoms of the MSDs. In
this world for most of the people, MSDs can cause short term pain in the human body and it
has become a natural part of the life of the patients with MSDs. However, prolonged
untreated condition may cause long term problems and pain among the patients. According to
the study of Mehrparvar et al. (2014), it is reported that, the use of physiotherapy in case of
MSDs is one of the most effective treatment processes for those who are suffering from
MSDs for a long period of time. Physiotherapy is highly correlated with the bodily movement
and various pain relieving techniques as well. In many studies, it is reported that, the
application of the physiotherapy intervention in the treatment process of MSDs may help in
the relief of pain among the patients with MSDs (Bandpei et al., 2014).
Annotated Bibliography
Citation:
Mani, S., Sharma, S., Omar, B., Paungmali, A., & Joseph, L. (2017). Validity and reliability
of Internet-based physiotherapy assessment for musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic
review. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 23(3), 379-391.
Justification for inclusion: This study was included in this assessment as it is fulfilling all
the inclusion criteria for this study. This study was published in 2016 that was within the

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range of the inclusion criteria of this study. Along with this, the study was also published in
the English language and apart from that, the study itself is a systematic review study. For
this reasons, this study was included. The main purpose of this study was to explore the
validity and effectiveness of the physiotherapy procedures on the Musculoskeletal Disorders
(MSDs) among the patients. Hence, it can be said that, this study purpose also shows similar
intend with this present study. Moreover, In this study, the selected articles for the systematic
review was also selected from the online databases like CINAHL, PubMed, EMBASE,
PsycINFO and Cochrane Library were used (Mani et al., 2017).
Summary of Key Findings
In this systematic review, 11 articles that met the inclusion criteria were analysed.
Among all the studies, 9 articles examined the inter and intra-rater reliability and validity of
physiotherapy intervention on the Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) were analysed and in
the remaining two studies, only the concurrent validity was checked. The result showed that
use of the physiotherapy intervention among the patients with Musculoskeletal Disorders
(MSDs) was able to improve the gait and balance, strengths and endurance of the patients,
pain , swelling and related scaring among the patients in a significant manner (Mani et al.,
2017). The study concluded that, the physiotherapy assessment was technically able to
improve the condition of the patients with Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) along with a
good concurrent validity. However, this study failed to show any improvement regarding the
pain of lumbar spine posture among the patients.
Quality of this Source
For assessing the quality of this study a tool named Diagnostic Accuracy Studies
(QUADAS) tool was used and it helped to assess the methodological quality of the study as
well.

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Key Implication for Physiotherapy Practice
This systematic review revealed that physiotherapy assessment among the patients
with Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) is quite effective in the measurement of pain, muscle
strengths of the patients, gait and functional capacity of the patients as well (Mani et al.,
2017).
Citation
Karel, Y. H., Scholten-Peeters, G. G. M., Thoomes-de Graaf, M., Duijn, E., van Broekhoven,
J. B., Koes, B. W., & Verhagen, A. P. (2017). Physiotherapy for patients with shoulder pain
in primary care: a descriptive study of diagnostic-and therapeutic management.
Physiotherapy, 103(4), 369-378.
Justification for inclusion: This study was included in this assessment as it is fulfilling all
the inclusion criteria for this study. This study was published in 2017 that was within the
range of the inclusion criteria of this study. Along with this, the study was also published in
the English language. Along with this, it is also reported that the study focuses on a very
common musculoskeletal disorders that is shoulder pain and that also promoted the inclusion
of this study. This study is based on a physiotherapy practice continued for 26 weeks among
the patients with shoulder pain.
Summary of Key Findings
In this study, almost 125 physiotherapist took part and they mainly referred the
patients with shoulder pain to the study. The study showed that almost 389 patients were
included in this study along with a mean age of 50 years and after the 26 weeks all the
patients returned for one or more follow up sessions. However, it was reported that, there was
no significant differences among the respondents and non-respondents of the study. However,

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it is also evident that at baseline, physiotherapists reported about the reduction of complains
regarding shoulder pain of the patients. After the completion of the treatment of the patients,
it was reported that, the recovery rate at week 12 was almost 44% and 60% was at week 26th
(Karel et al., 2017).
Quality of this Source
` This study was published in a renowned science journal and hence, it can be
said that the quality of source is quite good and that is the reason, it was published in a
renowned journal.
Key Implication for Physiotherapy Practice
The study showed that, the use of physiotherapy as a diagnostic tool in case of the
shoulder of the patients, is quite effective. Moreover, the diagnostic accuracy was moderate
and hence, there was a chance to improve the condition as well (Karel et al., 2017).
Citation
Ford, J. J., Hahne, A. J., Surkitt, L. D., Chan, A. Y., Richards, M. C., Slater, S. L., ... &
Taylor, N. F. (2016). Individualised physiotherapy as an adjunct to guideline-based advice for
low back disorders in primary care: a randomised controlled trial. Br J Sports Med, 50(4),
237-245.
Justification for inclusion: This study was included in this assessment as it is fulfilling all
the inclusion criteria for this study. This study was published in 2016 that was within the
range of the inclusion criteria of this study. Along with this, the study was also published in
the English language. Apart from that , the study is focusing on the individualised
physiotherapy practice for the patients suffering from lower back pain that is one of the most
common MSDs.

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Summary of Key Findings
The study findings showed that, there was significance difference in between the
control and intervention group having physiotherapy for their back pain and leg pain at week
10 and week 26. The overall study findings showed that, there was significant differences
among the two groups and the intervention groups had higher tendencies of improvement
regarding the pain in the leg and lower back region. The study concluded that 10 sessions of
individualised physiotherapy sessions had better result than that of the patients who had only
2 sessions (Ford et al., 2016).
Quality of this Source
The higher sample size of the study enhanced the reliability and quality of the study
by reducing the errors of the study. Along with this, it is also published in a good quality
journal.
Key Implication for Physiotherapy Practice
From the study, findings it can be easily said that, the individualised physiotherapy
intervention will be a good treatment process for the treatment of MSD patients.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded that, all the study selected and analysed in this essay are
well directed towards the main goal of assessing the effectiveness of physiotherapy in the
treatment process of MSDs among the patients suffering from multiple diseases under the
MSD group. Therefore, from all the study findings, it can be said that, the use of
physiotherapy intervention in case of MSD will be very effective as an intervention process.
All of the study showed significant result in improvement of MSDs.

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References
Bandpei, M. A. M., Ehsani, F., Behtash, H., & Ghanipour, M. (2014). Occupational low back
pain in primary and high school teachers: prevalence and associated factors. Journal of
manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 37(9), 702-708.
Ford, J. J., Hahne, A. J., Surkitt, L. D., Chan, A. Y., Richards, M. C., Slater, S. L., ... &
Taylor, N. F. (2016). Individualised physiotherapy as an adjunct to guideline-based
advice for low back disorders in primary care: a randomised controlled trial. Br J Sports
Med, 50(4), 237-245.
Karel, Y. H., Scholten-Peeters, G. G. M., Thoomes-de Graaf, M., Duijn, E., van Broekhoven,
J. B., Koes, B. W., & Verhagen, A. P. (2017). Physiotherapy for patients with shoulder
pain in primary care: a descriptive study of diagnostic-and therapeutic management.
Physiotherapy, 103(4), 369-378.
Mani, S., Sharma, S., Omar, B., Paungmali, A., & Joseph, L. (2017). Validity and reliability
of Internet-based physiotherapy assessment for musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic
review. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 23(3), 379-391.
Mehrparvar, A. H., Heydari, M., Mirmohammadi, S. J., Mostaghaci, M., Davari, M. H., &
Taheri, M. (2014). Ergonomic intervention, workplace exercises and musculoskeletal
complaints: a comparative study. Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 28, 69.

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Appendix
Search Strategy
During the literature search process a few online databases such as PubMed,
EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and CINAHL were used. The search was performed
by using the keywords like “physiotherapy in musculoskeletal disorder”, “effectiveness of
physiotherapy in Musculoskeletal disorder”, “physiotherapeutic intervention in
musculoskeletal disorders” were used. After that, words like musculoskeletal, physical
examination, physical assessment, physical test, manual examination, shoulder, elbow, wrist,
neck pain, back pain, low back pain, hip, knee, ankle, foot were used to find literature for this
process. In this process, along with the primary keywords combination of key words with the
Boolean logic (AND) were also used to find the literature.
Exclusion Criteria
While analysing the exclusion criteria, it is reported that, the articles published in
different languages (apart from English) were excluded from the study. Not only this, the
unpublished literature, conference proceedings, thesis papers submitted by the students,
online resources were excluded from this analysis. Along with this, the literature based on the
effect of physiotherapy on the neurological problems, other chronic condition such as stroke,
Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, swallowing impairment, speech disorders and
lymphedema were excluded in this study.
Inclusion Criteria
The literature published in the time period of 2008 to 2017 were included for the
study and along with this, there was another inclusion criteria to select an article for the
assessment and that was the article must be published in English language within this time

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period. Along with this, all the journal must assess the effect of physiotherapy in the
treatment process of MSDs among the people.