Work Type

Poster

Date

Fall 10-20-2015

Faculty Advisor

Danny McMillian, PT

Language

English

Abstract

Pathogenesis, the study of disease origins and causes, looks retrospectively at how to eliminate illnesses once they occur and has been the prevalent approach in Western medicine. Salutogenesis, by comparison, is the study of health origins and causes and looks prospectively at how to create health. There are many psychosocial instruments used to measure the personal factors that influence salutogenesis. However, the salutogenic model has rarely been studied in physical therapy settings, even though physical therapy educators and researchers are currently describing the importance of a psychologically informed practice.

Twenty-five psychological constructs within the salutogenic model were evaluated for this review. The evaluative process examined the constructs based on: 1) Measurability, determined by the reliability and validity of the outcome measures; 2) Relevance to physical therapy, determined by the construct’s ability to address learnable skills that can be influenced by physical therapists; and 3) Practicality, determined by the ability to measure the construct in a clinical setting using common practice patterns. Of the twenty-five constructs evaluated for this review, three met the above criteria and were chosen for further examination: self-efficacy, resilience, and sense of coherence.

The results suggest that these three constructs have potential use in physical therapy. Using one or more of these constructs to attain relevant psychosocial information about patients may assist physical therapists in determining appropriate interventions. Therefore, although this literature review proposes the clinical use of self-efficacy, resilience, and sense of coherence in physical therapy, further research is recommended to develop their optimal use.

Publisher

University of Puget Sound

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