Defence Primary Health Care (DPHC) clinical staff research priorities for 2020
| Rating order | Research topic | Score (m±SD) | Scoring high or very high priority (%) |
| 1 |
Rehabilitation Outcomes
Examples: clinical vs PROM vs occupational outcomes; validity of military-specific outcomes (eg, the FAA); measurement of muscle strength in rehabilitation. | 4.2±0.8 | 87 |
| 2 |
Psychological Factors in Rehabilitation
Examples: patient motivation; adherence to exercise; mental health issues in rehabilitation. | 4.3±0.7 | 86 |
| 3 |
Residential/Inpatient Treatment Paradigm
Examples: periodisation of programme, monitoring training load, physical activity levels, acute: chronic workloads, heart rate variability, optimal training dose and duration, metabolic cost. | 4.0±1.0 | 76 |
| 4 |
Injury (MSKI) Prevention
Examples: occupational and biomechanical risk factors for MSKI; prevention of training injuries. | 3.9±1.2 | 65 |
| 5 |
Recovery Strategies in Rehabilitation
Examples: sleep hygiene; nutrition strategies, protein supplementation, probiotics, vitamins, minerals and immunity. | 3.4±1.2 | 53 |
| 6 |
Hip Pain
Examples: diagnosis; optimum treatment of intra-articular vs extra-articular hip pathology; surgical vs conservative management of FAIS; source of pain. | 3.4±0.9 | 52 |
| 7 |
Low Back Pain
Examples: efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy and cognitive functional therapy; chronic vs acute care; diagnosis and optimum treatment in young adults; exercise efficacy. | 3.5±0.9 | 49 |
| 8 |
Novel and Innovative Treatments
Examples: blood flow restriction therapy; mindfulness in rehabilitation; virtual reality rehabilitation.* | 3.0±1.0 | 33 |
| - |
Lifestyle Factors in Rehabilitation
Examples: Physical inactivity (sedentary roles); smoking and alcohol consumption; sleep quality; healthy eating behaviours; obesity and cardiometabolic health. | New priority topic 2020 | |
| - |
Pain Management in Rehabilitation
Examples: acute vs persistent pain management; pain education; training load monitoring; pain response to exercise. | New priority topic 2020 | |
| - |
Anterior Knee Pain
Examples: optimal loading (monitoring and progressions); diagnosis; treatment outcome measurement; origin of pain. | New priority topic 2020 | |
*DMRC Stanford Hall specific research priority (only DMRC staff noted this as a priority).
DMRC, Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre; FAA, functional activity assessment; FAIS, femoroacetabular impingement syndrome; MSKI, musculoskeletal injury; PROM, patient-reported outcome measure.