Background: Guidelines recommend early referral for exercise for hip pain. It is unclear if this occurs in the Australian workers' compensation environment.
Objective: To investigate referral for exercise in workers with a compensable hip claim.
Methods: Retrospective audit of closed compensation files for workers with hip pain was performed. Exercise commencement was indicated by billing codes for physiotherapy or exercise specific consultations. Time to exercise commencement was calculated. Associations were analysed between time to exercise commencement with claim duration and diagnostic category.
Results: Exercise management occurred for 33/44 cases. Median time to commence exercise for those cases that had exercise was 14 days post-injury, with 33% commencing beyond 4 weeks. Longer time to commence exercise was associated with a longer claim duration (Spearman's rho = 0.70). Workers with a diagnosis of hip joint pain had a longer time to exercise commencement (median 49.5 days) compared to those with a diagnosis of lateral hip pain (median 14 days) or non-specific hip pain (median 4.5 days).
Conclusion: Findings indicate practice behaviours in the workers' compensation environment for the management of hip pain with exercise. Further investigation is warranted to see if improved adherence to guideline recommendations improves outcomes for people with compensable hip pain.
Keywords: Physiotherapy; guidelines; musculoskeletal; work.