Psychological Skills and Adherence to Rehabilitation after Reconstruction of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament
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Objective:
To examine the relationship between self-reported use of psychological skills and rehabilitation adherence.
Design:
Prospective correlational design.
Setting:
Outpatient physical-therapy clinic specializing in sports medicine.
Patients:
Fifty-four patients (17 women and 37 men) undergoing rehabilitation after anterior-cruciate-ligament reconstruction.
Main Outcome Measures:
An abbreviated version of the Sports Injury Survey (Ievleva & Orlick, 1991) was administered approximately 5 weeks after surgery to assess use of goal setting, imagery, and positive self-talk. Four adherence measures were obtained during the remainder of rehabilitation: attendance at rehabilitation sessions, practitioner ratings of patient adherence at rehabilitation sessions, patient self-reports of home exercise completion, and patient self-reports of home cryotherapy completion.
Results:
Goal setting was positively associated with home exercise completion and practitioner adherence ratings. Positive self-talk was positively correlated with home exercise completion.
Conclusions:
Use of certain psychological skills might contribute to better adherence to sport-injury rehabilitation protocols.
Scherzer, Brewer, Cornelius, Van Raalte, and Petitpas are with Dept of Psychology at Springfield College, Springfield, MA 01109. Sklar, Pohlman, and Krushell are with New England Orthopedic Surgeons, Springfield, MA 01104. Ditmar is with Apex Rehabilitation of Western New England, West Springfield, MA 01089.
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