Which Communication Skills are Identifiable among Physiotherapists during a Movement Education in People with Axial Spondyloarthritis? - A Cross-sectional Study

Background The Swiss ankylosing spondylitis association (SVMB) has recently implemented the "Be-Fit " Concept in the group therapies for people with axial Spondyloarthritis (axSpA). An essential component of it is a targeted movement education to support independent training. In this regard, the communication competence of physiotherapists (PT) is essential for a successful and effective patient education (PE), but has not been studied sufficiently. Aim Analysis of the communication techniques applied by the PT during the movement education in people with axSpA. Method A cross-sectional study with the leading PT and People with axSpA of the SVMB groups was conducted. The education sessions were audio recorded and the communication techniques identified with the manual & bdquo;The Calgary Cambridge Referenced Observation Guide One ". It contains five conversation sections (1. initiating the session, 2. gathering information, 3. providing structure to the consultation, 4. building relationship, 5. closing the session) with 38 techniques, of which 6 couldn't be analyzed. Techniques that were identified at least once were included. The more structured the consultation was and the more techniques were identified, the better the PT communication could be evaluated. Results 12 PT and 41 People with axSpA participated. Totally 41 education sessions were evaluated. Overall, among 10 of 12 (85 %) PT the 32 included communication techniques were identified in all sessions, with a frequency of each technique ranging from once to 41 times. The section & bdquo;providing structure to the consultation " showed the highest frequency between 29 and 41 times. Conclusions Structured communication is an essential component of patient education. Most of the PT conducted the movement educations with people with axSpA structurally and the communication techniques were widely identified. The varying frequency of the applied techniques can help to specifically teach and optimize PT communication in movement educations for people with axSpA.