Impact of Sociodemographic Variables on Physical Therapist's Documentation of Physical Activity Levels.

Abstract

To examine how physical therapists document PA and how sociodemographic variables impact physical therapists' PA documentation. Cross-sectional analysis of electronic health records. An outpatient physical therapy clinic located within a large learning health system that spans the Southeast and Midwest regions of the United States. We randomly selected 10,000 initial evaluations completed between 2018-2024 by the participating clinic's 35 physical therapists. The documentation of patients' PA. Our main outcome was physical therapists' documentation of patients' PA levels. When PA was documented, we examined the presence or absence of the following documentation components: 1) strength, aerobic, or balance-based PA; and 2) Frequency Intensity Time and Type/Mode (FITT). Logistic regressions were conducted to examine how sociodemographic variables impacted PA documentation. Among the 4,597 (45.97%) patients with documented PA, 2,693 (58.59%) had one type of PA documented (i.e., aerobic, strength, and balance). When we examined how PA documentation aligned with the FITT components, we identified that 9/4,597 (<1%) documentation included all the FITT components. The odds of having PA documented via FITT components decreased among individuals who identify as non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic, and those with increased social vulnerability. Three major documentation gaps identified include: 1) lack of PA documentation; 2) PA is not documented utilizing the FITT components; and 3) sociodemographic variables impact if and how PA is documented.