Research in physical therapy: the evidence grounded practice and study models

Abstract

For many years, physical therapy practice was based in rehabilitation books brought from abroad, of which the main feature were "recipes" that dismissed the need to make clinical decisions. Evidence grounded practice is nowadays a reality in the health area, where professionals resort to three sources of information: clinical research, the therapist clinic experience, and patients' preferences. In physical therapy, studies have been emphasizing the impact of diseases or of health conditions onto people's quality of life, which makes the clinical decision a complex act that demands a critical choice of research method. Such choice may be guided by the evidence levels now used as guidelines to assess the quality of a study in the health area. This article presents to therapists main research methods available, as well as the Evidence Pyramid, that points to most valued studies: systematic reviews and clinic randomized essays, followed by observational studies. Since, for each study issue, there is an adequate research design, it is expected that such knowledge may allow therapists to identify features and advantages of each kind, thus improving the quality of their studies.