Current Practices in and Barriers to Physiotherapists' Use of Resistance Exercise with Older Adults in Acute Care.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to describe physiotherapists' current use of resistance exercise (REx) with older adults in acute care and to identify barriers to its use with this population. We developed an online questionnaire guided by the theoretical domains framework and distributed it to physiotherapists across British Columbia. We used thematic analysis to code open-text questionnaire responses. One hundred and five physiotherapists completed the questionnaire (78% female; mean age 39.9 [SD 10.3] y; mean years of experience 12.4 [SD 10.3] y). Respondents reported frequently performing functional testing (95%) and assessing muscle strength (70%) in older adults, but few often prescribed REx (34%). The greatest barriers to use of REx that respondents identified were lack of prioritization of REx among other duties and perceived poor patient motivation. Open-text data analysis revealed that respondents felt that some patients were unable to perform REx and that physiotherapists lacked a clear definition of REx and sufficient support personnel. Addressing treatment priorities, patient motivation, and staffing resources can support physiotherapists in increasing REx use, an important strategy for reducing the incidence of hospital-associated deconditioning among older adults in acute care settings.