Search bioRxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/612473

Physiotherapists perceptions on informed consent and role in the healthcare system, in Europe

Roman, N.·Caloian, S.·Repanovici, A.·Miclaus, R. S.·Sechel, G.·Rogozea, L.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

IntroductionPhysiotherapy has developed over the last century, and the physiotherapists professional identity is growing. The heterogeneity of physiotherapy studies in Europe, local government, and health policies have influenced the responsibilities and ethical reasoning of physiotherapists. Our study aims to explore the perceptions and differences regarding informed consent (IC) and the role of physiotherapists in healthcare in an educational, legislative, and health policy context.\n\nMaterial and MethodsA cross-sectional survey was distributed online to physiotherapist graduates in Europe. The survey contained two open questions regarding IC and assumed role in healthcare. The data was operated to and analyzed by using a theory-based approach (open and axial coding), providing a qualitative spectrum of categories for the two items linked on IC and the role in healthcare.\n\nResultsEight categories of issues related to IC and seven categories related to the role in healthcare were identified. The physiotherapist graduates from Romania, France, Belgium, Italy, and other countries from inside and outside European Union response rate was 81.85% (n = 248 from 303) for the item related to IC and 71.62% (n = 217) to the second item related to the role in healthcare. A percent of 24.20% (n=60) are still considering IC a simple patient information process, while 23.40% (58) have linked IC with ethically and legally issues, 21.67% (n=51) of physiotherapists are minimizing their role in healthcare at restoring physical independence, while 6.91% (n=27) are aware of their multidisciplinary role. The country comparison analysis revealed that physiotherapists from UK and Italy are more aware regarding IC and that physiotherapists from Belgium and France are better oriented regarding their role in healthcare.\n\nConclusionsThe study shows that heterogeneity, legislation, and healthcare system differences influence physiotherapists professional development. Future research is needed to establish the reason for the reduced perception of physiotherapists regarding their role as health promoters.

Explore related subjects

scientific communication and educationPreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Roman, N., Caloian, S., Repanovici, A., Miclaus, R. S., Sechel, G., Rogozea, L.. 2019-04-17. Physiotherapists perceptions on informed consent and role in the healthcare system, in Europe. https://doi.org/10.1101/612473

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Evaluating Large Language Models as Tools to Navigate Researchers in Rapidly Evolving Research Landscapes: A Case Study in Cancer Drug Response Prediction

Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as promising tools for assisting researchers in automating and accelerating the synthesis of literature reviews. However, their reliability is a significant concern due to issues like factual inaccuracies and hallucinations. The key question is whether LLMs can reliably provide comprehensive, up-to-date overviews and analyses. This study evaluates the performance of three leading LLMs (OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and DeepSeek) on the complex task of generating a comprehensive survey paper on deep learning for cancer Drug Response Prediction (DRP). By testing both standard and Deep Research (DR) / Deep Think (DT) modes of LLMs with prompts of varying detail, this paper assesses key academic dimensions, including reference management, content quality, and analytical depth. Key findings reveal that while DR modes of LLMs significantly improve reliability by eliminating hallucinations, performance variations exist across models and prompts. A trade-off between reference quantity and integration quality was observed, and even the best-performing models lacked the analytical depth of human experts, often requiring extensive human supervision. The study concludes that LLMs currently serve as powerful assistive tools but still cannot replace the critical validation and synthesis provided by human researchers. Choosing the best LLM to use depends on the task in hand, while several strategies can be implemented to improve the produced output.

scientific communication and education↗
bioRxiv2019

Bayesian hierarchical models for disease mapping applied to contagious pathologies

Disease mapping aims to determine the underlying disease risk from scattered epidemiological data and to represent it on a smoothed colored map. This methodology is based on Bayesian inference and is classically dedicated to non-infectious diseases whose incidence is low and whose cases distribution is spatially (and eventually temporally) structured. Over the last decades, disease mapping has received many major improvements to extend its scope of application: integrating the temporal dimension, dealing with missing data, taking into account various a prioris (environmental and population covariates, assumptions concerning the repartition and the evolution of the risk), dealing with overdispersion, etc. We aim to adapt this approach to rare infectious diseases. In the context of a contagious disease, the outcome of a primary case can in addition generate secondary occurrences of the pathology in a close spatial and temporal neighborhood; this can result in local overdispersion and in higher spatial and temporal dependencies due to direct and/or indirect transmission. We have proposed and tested 60 Bayesian hierarchical models on 400 simulated datasets and bovine tuberculosis real data. This analysis shows the relevance of the CAR (Conditional AutoRegressive) processes to deal with the structure of the risk. We can also conclude that the negative binomial models outperform the Poisson models with a Gaussian noise to handle overdispersion. In addition our study provided relevant maps which are congruent with the real risk (simulated data) and with the knowledge concerning bovine tuberculosis (real data).\n\nAuthor summaryDisease mapping is dedicated to non-infectious diseases whose incidence is low and whose distribution is spatially (and eventually temporally) structured. In this paper, we aim to adapt this approach to rare infectious pathologies. In the context of a contagious disease, the outcome of a primary case can in addition generate secondary occurrences of the pathology in a close spatial and temporal neighborhood, resulting in local overdispersion and in high spatial and temporal dependencies. We thus explored different adapted spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal links and highlight the most adapted to likely risk structures for infectious diseases. We also conclude that the negative binomial models outperform the Poisson models with a Gaussian noise to handle overdispersion. Our study also provided relevant maps which are congruent with the real risk (in case of simulated data) and with the knowledge concerning bovine tuberculosis (when applying to real data). Thus disease mapping appears as a promising way to investigate rare infectious diseases.

scientific communication and education↗
bioRxiv2019

Review of layperson screening tools and model for a holistic mental health screener in lower and middle income countries

BackgroundThe needs of people diagnosed with Mental Neurological and Substance-Use (MNS) conditions are complex including interactions physical, social, medical and environmental factors. Treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach including health and social services at different levels of care. However, due to inadequate assessment, services and scarcity of human resource for mental health, treatment of persons diagnosed with MNS conditions in many LMICs is mainly facility-based pharmacotherapy with minimal non-pharmacology treatments and social support services. In low resource settings, gaps in human resource capacity may be met using layperson health workers. A layperson health working is one without formal mental health training and may be equivalent to community health worker (CHW) or less cadre in primary health care system.\n\nObjectivesThis study reviewed layperson mental health screening tools for use in supporting mental health in developing countries, including the content and psychometric properties of the tools. Based on this review this study proposes recommendations for the design and effective use of layperson mental health screening tools based on the Five Pillars of global mental health.\n\nMethodsA systematic review was used to identify and examine the use of mental health screening tools among laypersons supporting community-based mental health programs. PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL and PsychInfo databases were reviewed using a comprehensive list of keywords and MESH terms that included mental health, screening tools, lay-person, lower and middle income countries. Articles were included if they describe mental health screening tools used by laypersons for screening, delivery or monitoring of MNS conditions in community-based program in LMICs. Diagnostic tools were not included in this study. Trained research interviewers or research assistants were not considered as lay health workers for this study.\n\nResultsThere were eleven studies retained after 633 were screened. Twelve tools were identified covering specific disorders (E.g. alcohol and substance use, subcortical dementia associated with HIV/AIDS, PTSD) or common mental disorders (mainly depression and anxiety). These tools have been tested in LMICs including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Ethiopia and Brazil. The included studies show that simple screening tools can enhance the value of laypersons and better support their roles in providing community-based mental health support. However, most of the layperson MH screening tools used in LMICs do not provide comprehensive information that can inform integrated comprehensive treatment planning and understanding of the broader mental health needs of the community.\n\nConclusionDeveloping a layperson screening tools is vital for integrated community-based mental health intervention. This study proposed a holistic framework which considers the relationship between individuals physical, mental and spiritual aspect of mental health, interpersonal as well as broader contextual determinants (community, policy and different level of the health system) that can be consulted for developing or selecting a layperson mental health screening instrument. More research are needed to evaluate the practical application of this framework.

scientific communication and education↗