What are the barriers encountered by the physiotherapists in their role of physical activity promoters?

Purpose. The fight against sedentariness needs multisectorial actions. Being experts in movement and exercise, physiotherapists (PT) consider themselves as ideally placed to promote, guide and prescribe physical activity (PA). The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers that limit their PA promoting mission as well as proposals of solutions. Methods. Fifteen PT attended to a 3 hours meeting during which researchers applied the nominal group technique. After a short introduction summarizing basic notions about PA, subjects were invited to describe the problems that PTs encountered when they want to promote PA. In a second step, they selected 8 categories of barriers to be discussed. During the last part of the meeting, subgroups had to imagine solutions to deal with selected problems. Oral reports were shared. After the meeting, a written report was prepared by the researchers and validated by the subjects. Results. Out of the 13 identified categories, subject selected the following: Patients’ lack of awareness of PA’s interest for healthy living; Patients’ poor self perceptions and misrepresentations about PA; Patients’ difficulties to change their behaviour; PTs’ lack of knowledge about PA; PTs’ lack of informational resources; Patients’ lack of social support; Patients’ lack of facilities; PTs’ lack of interaction with other actors. The synthesis of the solutions was combined with written resources in a 19 pages brochure. Conclusions. This study pointed out that PTs are able to propose a plurality of ideas and approaches through a constructive group work. Such approach will be proposed in inservice education.