<p>Physical inactivity has become a global health concern and is among the 10 leading causes of death and disability. This has led to increased concern for chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDL).&nbsp / Studies have revealed that regular physical activity is effective in combating several CDL such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and obesity. Physiotherapists are in a&nbsp / position to combat inactivity and effectively promote physical activity to their clients. Studies however have shown that participation in physical activity among physiotherapists could have an&nbsp / impact on the promotion of physical activity and their health practices. This study therefore sought to establish the relationship between physical activity levels of physiotherapists and their&nbsp / physical&nbsp / activity promotion strategies and barriers to promoting physical activity. Sequential Mixed Method Design was used in this study. Data was collected by means of a self administered&nbsp / questionnaire and a total of 92 physiotherapists voluntarily answered the questionnaire. A focus group discussion comprising of 10 purposively selected physiotherapists was conducted. The&nbsp / questionnaire assessed physical activity levels&nbsp / and physical activity promoting strategies of the participants while the focus groupdiscussion looked at the barriers to promoting physical&nbsp / activity. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18 was used for data capturing and analysis. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize demographic information&nbsp / as means, standard deviation, frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics (chi-square) was used to test the associations between different categorical variables (p&lt / 0.05). For the qualitative data, focus group discussions were used to collect data. Tape recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, field notes typed, sorting and arranging data was done and themes&nbsp / &nbsp / were generated. Thematic analysis was then done under the generated themes. Ethical issues pertaining to informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality and the right to withdraw from the&nbsp / study were respected in this current study. The findings in the current study revealed that a big number of the participants were physical active both at work and recreation domains. However,&nbsp / there was no statistically significant association between physical activity and the demographicvariables. The results in this study revealed that the majority of participants were good&nbsp / physical activity promoting practices, although there was no significant association between physical activity levels and the physical activity promoting practices. The finding in this study revealed that discussing physical&nbsp / activity and giving out information regarding physical activity to their clients were the most common methods used in promoting physical activity. However, participants also highlighted barriers they&nbsp / ace in promotion of physical activity such as policies on physical activity, cultural influence, nature of work, time management as well as environmental barriers. The study demonstrates the&nbsp / need for all stakeholders to come up with solutions to break the barriers to promotion of physical activity. In return it will bring about enormous health&nbsp / benefits to the general population.</p>

<p>Physical inactivity has become a global health concern and is among the 10 leading causes of death and disability. This has led to increased concern for chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDL).&nbsp / Studies have revealed that regular physical activity is effective in combating several CDL such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and obesity. Physiotherapists are in a&nbsp / position to combat inactivity and effectively promote physical activity to their clients. Studies however have shown that participation in physical activity among physiotherapists could have an&nbsp / impact on the promotion of physical activity and their health practices. This study therefore sought to establish the relationship between physical activity levels of physiotherapists and their&nbsp / physical&nbsp / activity promotion strategies and barriers to promoting physical activity. Sequential Mixed Method Design was used in this study. Data was collected by means of a self administered&nbsp / questionnaire and a total of 92 physiotherapists voluntarily answered the questionnaire. A focus group discussion comprising of 10 purposively selected physiotherapists was conducted. The&nbsp / questionnaire assessed physical activity levels&nbsp / and physical activity promoting strategies of the participants while the focus groupdiscussion looked at the barriers to promoting physical&nbsp / activity. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18 was used for data capturing and analysis. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize demographic information&nbsp / as means, standard deviation, frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics (chi-square) was used to test the associations between different categorical variables (p&lt / 0.05). For the qualitative data, focus group discussions were used to collect data. Tape recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, field notes typed, sorting and arranging data was done and themes&nbsp / &nbsp / were generated. Thematic analysis was then done under the generated themes. Ethical issues pertaining to informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality and the right to withdraw from the&nbsp / study were respected in this current study. The findings in the current study revealed that a big number of the participants were physical active both at work and recreation domains. However,&nbsp / there was no statistically significant association between physical activity and the demographicvariables. The results in this study revealed that the majority of participants were good&nbsp / physical activity promoting practices, although there was no significant association between physical activity levels and the physical activity promoting practices. The finding in this study revealed that discussing physical&nbsp / activity and giving out information regarding physical activity to their clients were the most common methods used in promoting physical activity. However, participants also highlighted barriers they&nbsp / ace in promotion of physical activity such as policies on physical activity, cultural influence, nature of work, time management as well as environmental barriers. The study demonstrates the&nbsp / need for all stakeholders to come up with solutions to break the barriers to promotion of physical activity. In return it will bring about enormous health&nbsp / benefits to the general population.</p>

Abstract The aim of the study was to describe and analyse access to care and factors relating to access to care theoretically and empirically. Access to care is a theoretical concept, analysed through waiting list lengths categorised by field of special health care. Public health services and related factors, access to care and the disparity between demand and supply are analysed within a theoretical framework. The study is divided into a theoretical and an empirical section. Access to care was studied through a mixed methods approach, based on a two-phase empiric material. The first phase is composed of focus group interviews (N=4). Interviewees were hospital district administrators and medical directors as well as chairpersons of the board and council or their representatives. The interviews were analysed by phenomenographic methods. The second phase is composed of waiting list data collected by THL (N=79) as well as population and prevalence data acquired from SOTKAnet (N=12) for 2008–2010. For 2009–2010, hospital district documents include financial statements (N=16), annual reports (N=23), annual statistics (N=6), personnel reports (N=21) and balance sheet books (N=6). The second phase were statistically analyzed. Results of the study on factors affecting access to care are divided into two themes: 1. challenges related to access to care from the hospital district’s perspective and 2. component factors of the realisation of access to care. Macro-level challenges related to access to care are legislation, politics, regulatory bodies, uniform grounds for non-urgent treatment, Current Care Guidelines recommendations and the connection between access to care, Current Care Guidelines recommendations, uniform grounds for non-urgent treatment, prioritisation and regulations. Meso-level challenges are operative decision-making and organisational operations models, resources, supply-based demand and the chain of treatment. Component factors of the realisation of access to care are the variance in waiting list lengths between different fields; the connection between waiting lists, the population and the hospital district; population size and its prevalence as well as resources and financial factors. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata ja analysoida hoitoon pääsyä ja siihen vaikuttavia tekijöitä teoreettisesti ja empiirisesti. Hoitoon pääsy on teoreettinen käsite, jota analysoidaan erikoisaloittaisten jonojen pituutena. Teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä tarkastellaan julkisen terveydenhuollon palveluja ja niihin vaikuttavia tekijöitä, hoitoon pääsyä sekä kysynnän ja tarjonnan epäsuhtaa. Tutkimus jakautuu teoreettiseen ja empiiriseen osaan. Hoitoon pääsyä tutkittiin mixed methods -menetelmällä kaksivaiheisen empiirisen aineiston pohjalta. Ensimmäinen vaihe koostui fokusryhmähaastatteluista (N=4). Haastateltavina olivat SHP:n johtajat ja johtajaylilääkärit sekä SHP:n ky:n valtuuston ja hallituksen puheenjohtajat tai heidän edustajansa. Haastattelut analysoitiin fenomenografisen menetelmän mukaisesti. Toinen vaihe koostui THL:n erikoisaloittaisista jonotiedoista (N=79) ja SOTKAnetistä saaduista väestö- ja sairastavuustiedoista (N=12) vuosilta 2008–2010. Aineistona vuosilta 2009–2010 käytettiin myös SHP:n dokumentteja, joita olivat tilinpäätökset (N=16), vuosi-/toimintakertomukset (N=23), vuositilastot (N=6), henkilöstökertomukset (N=21) ja tasekirjat (N=6). Toinen vaihe analysoitiin tilastollisesti. Tutkimustulokset hoitoon pääsyyn vaikuttavista tekijöistä jakaantuivat kahteen teemaan: 1. hoitoon pääsyn haasteisiin SHP:n näkökulmasta sekä 2. hoitoon pääsyn toteutumisen osatekijöihin. Hoitoon pääsyn haasteita makrotasolla olivat lainsäädäntö, politiikka, STM, THL ja EOA merkityksellisinä tahoina, yhtenäiset kiireettömän hoidon perusteet, Käypä hoito -suositukset sekä hoitoon pääsyn, Käypä hoito -suositusten, yhtenäisten kiireettömän hoidon perusteiden sekä priorisoinnin ja sääntelyn yhteys. Mesotason haasteita olivat operatiivinen päätöksenteko ja organisatoriset toimintamallit, resurssit, tarjontalähtöinen kysyntä ja hoitoketju. Hoitoon pääsyn toteutumisen osatekijöitä ovat erikoisaloittaisten jonojen pituuden vaihtelu, jonojen yhteys väestöön ja SHP:iin, väestön määrä ja sen sairastavuus sekä resurssit ja taloudelliset tekijät.