Recommendations for standards of physiotherapy care following complete traumatic paraplegia in India.

STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: To formulate recommendations for standards of physiotherapy care for people with complete traumatic paraplegia in India using a Delphi methodology.

SETTING: India.

METHODS: Twenty-three physiotherapy experts were invited to participate in an online consensus process. Fourteen (n = 14) of 23 physiotherapy experts from India accepted an invitation to participate in an online consensus development exercise (Response rate-60.86%). Four rounds of consensus meetings were conducted which involved posting the quotations from a previous study on expectations of people with paraplegia to obtain perceptions of physiotherapy experts in round 1, retrieving codes/code groups from round 1, posting these code groups in rounds 2 and 3 for experts' agreement/disagreement, the preparation of the draft of recommendations, and posting it in round 4 for experts' opinion. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ATLASti software for qualitative data analysis.

RESULT: Recommendations for physiotherapy care for persons with complete traumatic paraplegia in India are presented.

CONCLUSIONS: Education to patients and/or caregivers regarding care post injury is one of the important recommendations by physiotherapy experts. It is emphasized that the subjective assessment of the patients, including their needs and preferences, is equally important as that of their objective assessment. Physiotherapy students and practicing physiotherapists must also enhance their knowledge to provide optimal physiotherapy care to people with paraplegia.