Raising the Priority of Lifestyle-Related Noncommunicable Diseases in Physical Therapy Curricula

Abstract

Given their enormous socioeconomic burdens, lifestyle-related noncommunicable diseases (heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity) have become priorities for the World Health Organization and health service delivery systems. Health care systems have been criticized for relative inattention to the gap between knowledge and practice, as it relates to preventing and managing noncommunicable diseases. Physical therapy is a profession that can contribute effectively to patients'/clients' lifestyle behavior changes at the upstream end of prevention and management. Efforts by entry-to-practice physical therapist education programs to align curricula with epidemiological trends toward best health care practices are varied. One explanation may be the lack of a frame of reference for reducing the knowledge translation gap. The purpose of this article is to provide a current perspective on epidemiological indicators and societal priorities to inform physical therapy curriculum content. Such content needs to include health examination/evaluation tools and health behavior change interventions that are consistent with contemporary values, directions, and practices of physical therapy. These considerations provide a frame of reference for curriculum change. Based on 5 years of experience and dialogue among curriculum stakeholders, an example of how epidemiologically informed and evidence-based best health care practices may be systematically integrated into physical therapy curricula to maximize patient/client health and conventional physical therapy outcomes is provided. This novel approach can serve as an example to other entry-to-practice physical therapist education programs of how to align their curricula with societal health priorities, specifically, noncommunicable diseases. The intentions are to stimulate dialogue about effectively integrating health-based competencies into entry-level education and advancing best practice, as opposed to simply evidence-based practice, across professions and health services and to establish accreditable, health promotion practice standards for physical therapy.