Compliance with the guidelines for acute ankle sprain for physiotherapists is moderate in the Netherlands: an observational study.

QUESTION What is the compliance with guidelines for acute ankle sprain for physiotherapists? DESIGN Survey of random sample of physiotherapists. PARTICIPANTS 400 physiotherapists working in extramural health care in the Netherlands. OUTCOME MEASURES Questions covered attitude towards guidelines in general, familiarity with the guidelines for acute ankle sprain,compliance with the guidelines, advantages and disadvantages of the guidelines, and factors relating to compliance with the guidelines. RESULTS The majority of the physiotherapists were familiar with the content of the guidelines to some degree and 66%applied it to more than half of their patients with acute ankle sprain. The recommendations to determine both the prognosis and the necessity of treatment by using the function score were the least followed. Some physiotherapists thought the function score was not completely clear, which may have been a barrier for implementation. Factors relating positively to compliance were a positive attitude towards guidelines in general, and having colleagues who implemented the guidelines for acute ankle sprain. CONCLUSION Although compliance with the guidelines for acute ankle sprain was fair/moderate, compliance may be enhanced by improving clarity of the function score, including it in the short version and improving the attitude of physiotherapists towards guidelines in general.