Role of tele physical therapy in quality of life and satisfaction among patients together with work productivity of physical therapists

Background: Despite showing promising results in clinical trials, role of tele physical therapy in improving the quality of life and satisfaction of musculoskeletal disorder patients is ambiguous. Work productivity of therapists is still needed to be calculated to further evaluate efficacy of tele physical therapy sessions.Objective: The study aimed to determine the role of tele physical therapy in quality of life and satisfaction among patients together with work productivity of physical therapists. Method: An observational study comprising of pre-post and longitudinal design was conducted. 327 patients suffering from musculoskeletal disorders and 199 licensed physical therapists were recruited through MARHAM’s platform. The patients were requested to fill telehealth usability questionnaire and the European quality of life-5-dimension questionnaire before the start of tele physical therapy sessions and at the end via email and WhatsApp. They answered 10 open-ended questions related to their experience and perception of tele physical therapy at the end of the intervention. Similarly, therapists were requested to fill the online form for 14 consecutive days in one month and then again for 14 consecutive days for second month including the record of therapists’ time spent online with patients in minutes and typical performances for revenue generation of annual income.Results: The majority of the patients belonged to Lahore with a mean age of 41.80 (+14.84) years. Paired sample t-tests showed significant differences between pre and post-values of TUQ and EQ-5D scores. Overall health score was also improved after tele sessions. Multiple regression analysis showed 35.4% of variance in satisfaction and 35% in quality of life. 85.33% of participants were highly satisfied and 83% had excellent experience. Therapists reported average efficiency percentage of first fortnight to be 59.17 + 15.20 with an annual revenue projection of 668190.95 rupees and that of second fortnight to be 61.22 + 13.43 with an annual revenue projection of 621155.77 rupees. Efficiency percentages and revenue generation were not affected by the demographic factors.Conclusion: Tele physical therapy had a positive role in improving the quality of life and satisfaction among patients with musculoskeletal disorders and tele physical therapy results in moderate productivity of physical therapists.