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Physical Therapy Adherence: An Exploration Into Motivation, Keith Rader

Capstone Showcase

A major problem in the field of physical therapy is the lack of patient adherence to home exercise program prescriptions. Non-adherence to these exercise programs is as high as 70% according to the research. There must be an underlying mechanism because the type of non-adherent patients is not exclusively based on condition or injury. Past research has centered around two fields of thought for motivation, self-determination and self-efficacy, as well as practitioner intervention to increase these psychological principles in patients. Self-determination is present because while doing physical therapy exercises is not intrinsically enjoyable, patients can be extrinsically motivated by their …