title: Perception and education of unilateral weightbearing amongst health care professionals.
abstract: Studies have shown that healthy individuals cannot accurately judge the degree of weightbearing through one lower extremity [Bohannon R, Waters G, Cooper J. Perception of unilateral lower extremity weightbearing during bilateral upright stance. Percept Mot Skills 69;1989:875-80]. This study of 40 healthcare professionals assessed a simple education process to see if this perception could be improved. Weightbearing was assessed before and after the education process, a familiarisation exercise with a set of bathroom scales. The education process had no significant effect on individual's perception of weightbearing, nor was there any difference between members of the multi-disciplinary team. As an important aspect of patient care, further work is necessary to identify an accurate and reproducible method of quantifying weightbearing.
authors.affiliation: University of Nottingham Medical School, Queens Medical Centre University Hospital NHS Trust, Derby Road, Nottingham, UK. paulsutton01@doctors.org.uk
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stedman
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Livesley
mesh_terms: D004496:Education, Continuing / Q000379:methods; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000502:physiology*; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures / Q000534:rehabilitation; D014892:Weight Perception; D016474:Weight-Bearing