Understanding the Role of Sports Injury Management by Australian Osteopaths: A Cross Sectional Survey of 992 Practitioners
by
, , , , , and
Brett Vaughan
1,2,3,4,*
,
Jon Adams
1,
Wenbo Peng
1,
Lauren V. Fortington
3,
Michael Fleischmann
1,5,
Kylie Fitzgerald
2,
Amie Steel
1
and
David Sibritt
1 1
School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney 2007, Australia
2
Department of Medical Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
3
School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth 6027, Australia
4
Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, Lismore 2480, Australia
5
College of Sport, Health and Engineering, Victoria University, Melbourne 3001, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(15), 8397; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158397
Submission received: 30 December 2024
/
Revised: 23 July 2025
/
Accepted: 28 July 2025
/
Published: 29 July 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exercise, Fitness, Human Performance and Health: 2nd Edition)
Abstract
Sport-related injuries are common presentations to primary care and hospital settings. Australian osteopaths practice mainly in private clinical settings in which the frequency of sport-related injury presentations, and how these injuries are managed, is unknown. The objective of the study was to describe the demographic, practice, and clinical management characteristics of Australian osteopaths who report often treating sport-related injuries. The study is a secondary analysis of data derived from the Australian osteopathy practice-based research network. Respondents indicated the frequency treating sports-related injuries in addition to other demographic, practice, and patient management characteristics. Backward logistic regression identified significant characteristics associated with often treating sport injuries. Over half (51%) of a nationally representative sample of Australian osteopaths reported treating sport-related injuries often. Those osteopaths who treat sports injuries often were likely to be male (p < 0.01) and utilise exercise prescription (OR2.34) and sports taping (OR5.99). Australian osteopaths who often treat sports-related injuries provide advice to patients and use exercise prescription more frequently than osteopaths who do not treat these injuries often. The data in the current work begin to explore how osteopaths manage sports-related injuries and highlights how they may be able to provide sports injury care for both recreational and elite sport populations.
1. Introduction
Participation in recreational and competitive sporting activities provides significant societal, health, and economic benefits across different sports and populations [1,2,3]. However, such activities also present a risk of injury that can require extensive medical interventions [4,5] and potentially high care costs [6]. There has been a longstanding interest in investigating acute sports-related injuries in hospital and emergency department settings [7,8,9,10,11]. Meanwhile, despite being frequent settings for injury treatment [12,13,14], much less is known about sports-related injuries managed in ambulatory outpatient or community clinic settings [15].
Community-based allied health professionals (including osteopaths) are a common source of musculoskeletal injury treatment both in Australia [16] and internationally [17,18,19,20]. Australian osteopaths are university-educated allied health practitioners who use manual therapy techniques, exercise prescription, and advice with respect to nutrition, ergonomics, and exercise to manage complaints affecting the musculoskeletal system [16]. In Australia, the osteopathy profession comprises over 2500 registered practitioners as of June 2019 [21]. The Osteopathy Board of Australia registers osteopaths and provides a regulatory structure of competencies and practice standards for osteopaths.
A focus upon specialist sports-related injury care and prevention has recently increased within the Australian osteopathy profession with the establishment of an advanced practice group, and a number of case studies being published, e.g., Feehan, et al. [22]. To optimise the potential of osteopaths within wider transdisciplinary care, a better understanding of how sports-injury treatments fit within osteopathy practice is required. Unfortunately, empirical investigation of osteopathy for treatment and prevention of sports injury remains lacking [18]. In direct response, the study reported here aims to provide a detailed review of the characteristics of Australian osteopaths who treat sports-related injuries, together with information on the main injuries presenting to osteopaths and treatments provided. Data were drawn from a national-representative osteopathy workforce study [23] and includes practitioners who do and do not identify as treating sports-related injuries on a regular basis. The findings are important in providing new knowledge on the scope of sports-related injuries treated by osteopaths in Australia. Results are intended to help shape professional development opportunities and pre-professional education to provide evidence-based care and training, in addition to informing the public health discourse about the role of osteopathy in managing sports-related injuries.
2. Materials and Methods
The study is a secondary analysis of data from a nationally representative workforce study known as the Osteopathy Research and Innovation Network (ORION) practice-based research network (PBRN) project. The ORION project has been described in detail previously [23] and was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the University of Technology Sydney (Australia). The aim of the ORION project was two-fold: to develop a PBRN for the osteopathy profession in Australia, and to collect data about the Australian osteopathy workforce.
2.1. Participants
Recruitment for the ORION project was conducted between July and December 2016, and a detailed profile of the sample and methods has been published elsewhere [23]. Osteopathy Australia (OA) serves as the principal professional body for osteopaths in Australia, encompassing over 85% of the nation’s registered practitioners. The invitation package was disseminated to all registered osteopaths through OA’s network for its members, and through osteopathy-related conferences, events, and the ORION website for those not affiliated with OA. Participants were guided to the ORION website, which hosted the online practitioner questionnaire, with recruitment emails containing direct links to the questionnaire. Multiple reminder emails were sent out after the initial distribution of the invitation package. At the time of recruitment, there were 2020 registered osteopaths in Australia. The secondary analysis presented here utilized all data from responding participants.
2.2. Questionnaire
The questionnaire was delivered online through SurveyGizmo™. There were 27 questions across four themes, with a mix of open, closed, and scaled response options. The full questionnaire is available as Supplementary Materials to the main study (Supplementary S1).
Theme 1 (questions 1 to 6) focused on practitioner demographics including age, gender, number of years in private osteopathy practice, highest osteopathy professional qualification, membership of professional organisations (including an option for Sports Medicine Australia, a multidisciplinary sports organisation) and additional service roles (teaching, supervision, research, etc.). Theme 2 (questions 7 to 20) sought information on characteristics of the practice, including weekly hours and number of consultations per week, and collaboration with other health professionals (through shared workplaces, referral relationships with general practice, allied health, diagnostic imaging, and other professions). Theme 3 (questions 21 to 25) considered clinical management characteristics including frequency with which they discussed lifestyle behaviours and care plans, treatment frequency for specific clinical conditions (including sports-related musculoskeletal disorders and non-musculoskeletal disorders) and frequency of using osteopathic techniques. Within this theme, question 23 asked “How frequently do you treat the following patient subgroups?” from which ‘sports-related injuries’ was one of 12 subgroups with response options of ‘never’, ‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’, and ‘often.’ Theme 4 presented two final questions on the perceived value of research and evidence in osteopathic practice.
2.3. Data Management and Statistical Analyses
The completed responses were downloaded from SurveyGizmo™ (Boulder, CO, USA) as a Microsoft Excel file. Data were then cleaned and exported to Stata/SE version 14.0 for analysis.
Two respondent groups (summarised as regularly treat sports injury and do not regularly treat sports injury) were determined by answers to question 23 (frequency of treating sports-related injuries) after re-coding to: not often (never, rarely, sometimes) and often. These two groups were utilised as the outcome variable. All responses to remaining scale variables (with respect to frequency of clinical management and referral practices) are presented using the same not often/often categorisation.
Descriptive data are presented for practitioners’ age, number of years in private osteopathy practice, average patient care hours per week, and average patient visits per week included in the analyses (continuous variables) or reported in binary form (yes, no). Bivariate analyses were used to identify the associations between those who often treat sports-related injuries and those who do not using chi-square tests for categorical variables and t-tests for continuous variables. The statistical significance was set at α = 0.05 and effect sizes calculated where relevant. All statistical analyses were performed using Stata/SE version 14.0. Missing responses to specific questions are indicated in the tables presented and data were treated as missing completely at random (MCAR) [24].
3. Results
A total of 992 registered osteopaths completed the ORION questionnaire, a response rate of 49.1%, based on the total national population of registered osteopaths in Australia at the time of recruitment (N = 2020) [23]. From this sample, 990 provided a response to the item asking about frequency of treating sports-related injuries, with 501 (51%) respondents reported often treating people with sports-related injuries (Table 1).
3.1. Survey Themes 1 and 2
Male Australian osteopaths were more likely to report often treating sports-related injuries compared to female practitioners (OR1.65, 95%CI 1.28–2.13). Australian osteopaths who reported often treating sports-related injuries were also more likely to be younger, with a small effect size (p < 0.001, d = 0.23) compared to their counterparts who do not often treat these injuries. Patient care hours (p < 0.001, d = 0.41) and patient visits per week (p < 0.001, d = 0.37) were significantly greater amongst osteopaths who often treat sports-related injuries compared to those who did not often treat these injuries with medium effect sizes. Australian osteopaths who report often treating sports-related injuries were also more likely to often refer patients for diagnostic imaging (OR6.13, 95%CI 3.19–11.80) compared to colleagues who do not often treat these injuries.
Australian osteopaths who often treat sports-related injuries are more likely to share a practice with other health professionals, including podiatrists (OR2.08, 95%CI 1.44–3.00), exercise physiologists (OR2.00, 95%CI 1.35–2.96) and massage therapists (OR1.36, 95%CI 1.05–1.74) compared to osteopaths who do not often treat sports-related injuries (Table 2). Further, Australian osteopaths who often treat sports-related injuries were more likely to refer to, and receive referrals from, podiatrists (refer—OR1.46, 95%CI 1.12–1.90; receive—OR1.71, 95%CI 1.33–3.20) and exercise physiologists (refer—OR1.75, 95%CI 1.35–2.28; receive—OR1.83, 95%CI 1.37–2.44) when compared to those osteopaths who did not often treat sports-related injuries (Table 2).
3.2. Survey Theme 3 and 4
Australian osteopaths who report treating sports-related injuries often were more likely to report often providing advice to patients about diet, physical activity and smoking/alcohol/drug use, compared to osteopaths who do not often treat sports-related injuries (Table 3). Further, those osteopaths who reported often treating sports-related injuries were more likely to use exercise prescription (OR2.34, 95%CI 1.74–3.14) and sports taping (OR5.99, 95%CI 3.64–9.85) than their colleagues who did not often treat sports-related injuries, in addition to reporting often using a wide range of treatment interventions (Table 4).
4. Discussion
This study is the first to report on the practitioner and practice profiles of a nationally representative sample of Australian osteopaths who report often treating or not often treating sports-related injuries. This unique data provides an insight into the management of sport injuries by Australian osteopaths. Further, this study provides a basis on which further research can be undertaken into the contribution of osteopaths to sport injury management for the Australian population. Responses from this nationally representative sample suggests that just over half of the Australian profession often treat sports-related injuries in their clinical practice. The current work is the first to provide an indication as to the frequency with which treatment of sport injuries may be a part of Australian osteopathy practice. Previous Australian practice profiles [25,26] have not explored this aspect of the profession, and this secondary analysis begins to shed light on how osteopaths manage sports-related injuries.
Australian osteopaths who reported often treating sports-related injuries were significantly younger and had fewer years of working in clinical practice than their colleagues who do not treat these injuries often. This result suggests that an interest in treating sports-related injuries may develop in the early practice years of Australian osteopaths, a time in which practitioners tend towards a generalist role that includes an interest in managing sport injury populations. Younger osteopaths may develop this interest given they are potentially engaged in sport activities themselves and/or experienced sport-related injuries for which they have sought osteopathy care. Given this early interest in management of sport injury populations, it is incumbent on pre-professional osteopathy programs to ensure they are providing adequate training to enable effective care. Male Australian osteopaths were also more likely to report often treating sports-related injuries compared to female practitioners. The early years in practice and gender differences with respect to treating sports-related injuries may be associated with initial interest in becoming an osteopath. Work in physiotherapy has identified that gender and ‘sportiness’ are intertwined [27], with males more likely to enter training having an interest in sport and/or participating in sports [28] compared to females. Whether this is the case in osteopathy is an avenue for further research.
Those Australian osteopaths who reported often treating sports-related injuries appear to engage in multi-disciplinary practices more so than their counterparts who do not treat these injuries often. These referrals appear to involve a range of medical and allied health professionals who play a role in sport injury management or prevention, particularly podiatrists [29] and exercise physiologists [30]. Although multidisciplinary care is described in the elite sport context [31], there is less so at the recreational level albeit team-based care can be of equal importance [32]. It is in this latter recreational sport population that osteopathy may play a role, given their predominant practice in the private clinical setting [23]. Although exposure to physiotherapists is common through their involvement in elite sporting teams, osteopaths may be able to provide a holistic approach to sports-related injury care in the private practice setting for those undertaking recreational sport.
Part of this holistic approach to sports-related injury care appears to be provision of advice with respect to diet, physical activity and smoking/drugs/alcohol. Australian osteopaths who reported often treating sports-related injuries were more likely to provide advice on these aspects of health compared to osteopaths not often treating sport-related injuries. Whether this advice was specific to sport injury management or part of the practitioners’ broader approach to patients requires additional investigation [33]. However, the result is encouraging and suggests that advice about diet, physical activity, and smoking/drugs/alcohol forms a significant component of the practice of Australian osteopaths who report treating sports-related injuries.
Australian osteopaths also appear to use exercise prescription and sports taping in patient care. These aspects of osteopathy practice were more likely to be utilised by Australian osteopaths who report often treating sport-related injuries compared to osteopaths who do not treat these injuries often. The use of exercise prescription by osteopaths is emerging in the literature [34] and the result here suggests that active approaches (i.e., exercise) may form a party of the management strategy for a patient with a sports-related injury. Australian osteopaths who often treat sports-related injuries were also more likely to use sport taping compared to their counterparts who do not treat these injuries often. Sport taping has long been a staple of the management of sport-related injuries [35] and is routinely taught as part of the pre-professional curriculum so its use by Australian osteopaths is perhaps unsurprising.
There are several limitations with respect to this study. The current work utilised a cross-sectional design and subsequently a social desirability bias may play a role in the outcomes reported here. The self-report nature of the data collection also makes the responses subject to recall bias. Future research could incorporate practice audit and qualitative data to triangulate the findings from the current work. Although there are several limitations, the data set is derived from a large, nationally representative sample and these limitations are unlikely to materially affect the outcomes presented here. There are significant opportunities to explore the role that osteopaths could play at the elite sport level and evaluate outcomes of care for patients who present to osteopaths with sports-related injuries.
5. Conclusions
This secondary analysis of the practice characteristics of a nationally representative sample of Australian osteopaths with regards to often treating sports-related injuries suggests the younger, male practitioners who have more recently graduated are more likely to report managing sport-related injuries in their practice compared to their counterparts. Australian osteopaths who report often treating sports-related injuries were more likely to engage in multidisciplinary practice, provide a range of advice to patients and use exercise prescription and sport taping, in addition to manual therapy, when compared with osteopaths who do not report often treating sport-related injuries. This study highlights that a substantial percentage of osteopaths manage sport-related injuries and the current and potential role of osteopaths within a broader multidisciplinary care team approach to treating sports injury appears significant. Further research could explore why patients seek osteopathy care for sport-related injuries, how osteopaths manage specific sport-related injuries, and the outcomes of care. This research could also extend to cost-effectiveness work. There is much opportunity for those within the osteopathy profession as well as numerous stakeholders, such as other providers and health policymakers focused upon sports-relates injuries, to further appreciate and advance the potential of osteopathy for the benefit of the many patients seeking care for such complaints.
Supplementary Materials
The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app15158397/s1, S1: ORION questionnaire.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, B.V., J.A. and W.P.; methodology, J.A., W.P., A.S. and D.S.; validation, W.P. and A.S.; formal analysis, W.P.; resources, W.P., L.V.F. and A.S.; data curation, W.P.; writing—original draft preparation, B.V., W.P., L.V.F., M.F. and K.F.; writing—review and editing, all authors; project administration, W.P.; funding acquisition, J.A. and A.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The Osteopathy Research and Innovation Network (ORION) project is funded by Osteopathy Australia. The funding source had no influence in study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and publication decisions. The research reported in this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors and reflects the independent ideas and scholarship of the authors alone.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia (#2014000759).
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from arccim@uts.edu.au due to ethical reasons.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Osteopathy Australia for their financial support for the ORION project. We would also like to thank all participating osteopaths for providing their data.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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Table 1.
Practitioner and practice characteristics of Australian osteopaths who report often treating sports-related injuries compared to those who do not often treat sports-related injuries.
Table 1.
Practitioner and practice characteristics of Australian osteopaths who report often treating sports-related injuries compared to those who do not often treat sports-related injuries.
| Treating Sports-Related Injuries Not Often (n = 489) | Treating Sports Injuries Often (n = 501) | p-Value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survey Theme 1: Practitioner Features | |||||
| Age (years) [mean ± SD] | 39.2 ± 11.2 | 36.7 ± 10.2 | <0.001 * | ||
| Gender n (%) | <0.001 ^ | ||||
| Male | 175 | (35.8) | 240 | (47.9) | |
| Female | 314 | (64.2) | 261 | (52.1) | |
| Highest osteopathy professional qualification n (%) | |||||
| Diploma/Advanced Diploma 1 | 39 | (8.0) | 31 | (6.2) | 0.009 ^ |
| Bachelor Degree | 114 | (23.3) | 99 | (19.8) | |
| Master’s Degree/PhD 2 | 319 | (65.2) | 366 | (73.0) | |
| Others | 17 | (3.5) | 5 | (1.0) | |
| Years in practice [mean ± SD] | 12.3 ± 9.6 | 10.5 ± 8.3 | 0.002 * | ||
| Survey Theme 2: Practice Features | |||||
| Patient care hours per week [mean ± SD] | 25.8 ± 11.9 | 30.6 ± 11.2 | <0.001 * | ||
| Missing | |||||
| Patient visits per week 3 [mean ± SD] | 33.5 ± 18.1 | 40.1 ± 17.7 | <0.001 * | ||
| Practice location 4 n (%) | |||||
| Non-urban | 99 | (21.2) | 73 | (15.3) | 0.017 * |
| Urban | 367 | (78.8) | 405 | (84.7) | |
| Missing | 23 | 23 | |||
| Practice in more than 1 location n (%) | |||||
| Yes | 146 | (29.9) | 201 | (40.1) | 0.001 * |
| Referring people for diagnostic imaging (done often) n% | 11 | (2.2) | 62 | (12.4) | <0.001 * |
| Techniques used to assist in clinical diagnosis n (%) | |||||
| Orthopaedic testing | 471 | (96.3) | 496 | (99.0) | 0.005 * |
| Clinical assessment algorithm | 199 | (40.7) | 268 | (53.5) | <0.001 * |
| Neurological testing | 448 | (91.6) | 468 | (93.4) | 0.282 |
| Screening questionnaire | 305 | (62.4) | 327 | (65.3) | 0.343 |
| Cranial nerve testing | 315 | (64.4) | 356 | (71.1) | 0.025 * |
1 a total of 9 osteopaths reporting advanced diploma were combined in this group; 2 a total of 5 osteopaths reporting PhD were combined in this group; 3 there were 200 missing observations in this variable; 4 a total of 46 osteopaths practicing in both locations were excluded from this variable * t-test or ^ chi-square test was statistically significant.
Table 2.
Co-location and referral practices of Australian osteopaths who report often treating sports-related injuries compared to those who do not often treat sports-related injuries.
Table 2.
Co-location and referral practices of Australian osteopaths who report often treating sports-related injuries compared to those who do not often treat sports-related injuries.
| Health Professionals Working in Same Practice Location | Sending Referrals to Other Health Professionals | Receiving Referrals from Other Health Professionals | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treat Sports-Related Injuries Not Often (n = 489) | Treat Sports Injuries Often (n = 501) | p-Value | Treat Sports-Related Injuries Not Often (n = 489) | Treat Sports Injuries Often (n = 501) | p-Value | Treat Sports-Related Injuries Not Often (n = 489) | Treat Sports Injuries Often (n = 501) | p-Value | |||||||
| Another osteopath | 301 | (61.6) | 341 | (68.1) | 0.032 * | 238 | (48.7) | 267 | (53.3) | 0.146 | 300 | (61.3) | 314 | (62.7) | 0.668 |
| General practitioner | 33 | (6.7) | 39 | (7.8) | 0.530 | 429 | (87.7) | 448 | (89.4) | 0.403 | 433 | (88.5) | 452 | (90.2) | 0.393 |
| Medical specialist | 14 | (2.9) | 17 | (3.4) | 0.632 | 175 | (35.8) | 268 | (53.5) | <0.001 * | 86 | (17.6) | 151 | (30.1) | <0.001 * |
| Podiatrist | 50 | (10.2) | 96 | (19.2) | <0.001 * | 300 | (61.3) | 350 | (69.9) | 0.005 * | 199 | (40.7) | 271 | (54.1) | <0.001 * |
| Physiotherapist | 62 | (12.7) | 81 | (16.2) | 0.118 | 149 | (30.5) | 181 | (36.1) | 0.059 | 114 | (23.3) | 151 | (30.1) | 0.015 * |
| Exercise physiologist | 43 | (8.8) | 81 | (16.2) | <0.001 * | 175 | (35.8) | 223 | (44.5) | 0.005 * | 99 | (20.2) | 159 | (31.7) | <0.001 * |
| Occupational therapist | 9 | (1.8) | 10 | (2.0) | 0.858 | 49 | (10.0) | 57 | (11.4) | 0.490 | 28 | (5.7) | 33 | (6.6) | 0.573 |
| Psychologist/Counsellor | 103 | (21.1) | 88 | (17.6) | 0.163 | 171 | (35.0) | 177 | (35.3) | 0.906 | 74 | (15.1) | 79 | (15.8) | 0.782 |
| Massage therapist | 228 | (46.6) | 272 | (54.3) | 0.016 * | 331 | (67.7) | 338 | (67.5) | 0.940 | 352 | (72.0) | 401 | (80.0) | 0.003 * |
| Acupuncturist | 98 | (20.0) | 89 | (17.8) | 0.360 | 237 | (48.5) | 213 | (42.5) | 0.060 | 184 | (37.6) | 185 | (36.9) | 0.819 |
| Naturopath | 98 | (20.0) | 94 | (18.8) | 0.611 | 240 | (49.1) | 236 | (47.1) | 0.534 | 203 | (41.5) | 196 | (39.1) | 0.443 |
| Dietician | 38 | (7.8) | 34 | (6.8) | 0.551 | 68 | (13.9) | 99 | (19.8) | 0.014 * | 15 | (3.1) | 24 | (4.8) | 0.164 |
| Nutritionist | 35 | (7.2) | 42 | (8.4) | 0.472 | 56 | (11.5) | 73 | (14.6) | 0.145 | 21 | (4.3) | 34 | (6.8) | 0.087 |
* Statistically significant.
Table 3.
Frequency of advice provided to patients by Australian osteopaths who report often treating sport injuries compared to those osteopaths who do not often treat sport injuries.
Table 3.
Frequency of advice provided to patients by Australian osteopaths who report often treating sport injuries compared to those osteopaths who do not often treat sport injuries.
| Discussing as Part of the Management Plan (Often) n (%) | Treat Sports-Related Injuries Not Often (n = 489) | Treat Sports-Related Injuries Often (n = 501) | OR [95%CI] | p-Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diet/Nutrition | 151 | (30.9) | 223 | (44.7) | 1.79 [1.38–2.33] | <0.001 * |
| Smoking/Drugs/Alcohol | 55 | (11.2) | 124 | (24.8) | 2.59 [1.84–3.67] | <0.001 * |
| Physical activity/Fitness | 415 | (84.9) | 470 | (94.0) | 2.70 [1.74–4.19] | <0.001 * |
| Occupational health and safety | 205 | (42.1) | 300 | (60.0) | 2.06 [1.65–2.66] | <0.001 * |
| Pain counselling | 99 | (20.2) | 165 | (33.0) | 1.93 [1.44–2.58] | <0.001 * |
| Stress management | 222 | (45.5) | 266 | (53.3) | 0.014 * | |
| Nutritional supplements | 114 | (23.3) | 138 | (27.6) | 0.122 | |
| Medications | 147 | (30.1) | 244 | (48.9) | 2.21 [1.70–2.86] | <0.001 * |
* Statistically significant.
Table 4.
Clinical management characteristics of osteopaths who treat people with sports-related injury.
Table 4.
Clinical management characteristics of osteopaths who treat people with sports-related injury.
| Variables | Osteopaths Treating People with Sports-Related Injury | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not-Often n = 489 | Often n = 501 | p-Value | |||
| Treating patients with the following conditions (performed often) n (%) | |||||
| Neck pain | 473 | (96.7) | 496 | (99.2) | 0.006 * |
| Thoracic pain | 433 | (88.5) | 474 | (94.8) | <0.001 * |
| Low back pain | 479 | (98.2) | 496 | (99.2) | 0.150 |
| Hip musculoskeletal disorders | 330 | (67.6) | 413 | (82.6) | <0.001 * |
| Knee musculoskeletal disorders | 179 | (36.8) | 311 | (62.3) | <0.001 * |
| Ankle musculoskeletal disorders | 104 | (21.3) | 228 | (45.7) | <0.001 * |
| Foot musculoskeletal disorders | 96 | (19.6) | 197 | (39.5) | <0.001 * |
| Shoulder musculoskeletal disorders | 352 | (72.0) | 448 | (90.0) | <0.001 * |
| Elbow musculoskeletal disorders | 72 | (14.8) | 178 | (35.8) | <0.001 * |
| Wrist musculoskeletal disorders | 58 | (11.9) | 129 | (25.9) | <0.001 * |
| Hand musculoskeletal disorders | 29 | (6.0) | 91 | (18.3) | <0.001 * |
| Postural disorders | 295 | (60.3) | 380 | (76.3) | <0.001 * |
| Degenerative spine conditions | 254 | (51.9) | 345 | (69.3) | <0.001 * |
| Headache disorders | 425 | (86.9) | 465 | (93.2) | 0.001 * |
| Migraine disorders | 152 | (31.1) | 247 | (49.6) | <0.001 * |
| Spinal health maintenance or prevention | 187 | (38.3) | 271 | (54.4) | <0.001 * |
| Chronic or persistent pain | 281 | (57.6) | 348 | (69.7) | <0.001 * |
| Tendinopathies | 115 | (23.5) | 295 | (59.2) | <0.001 * |
| Temporomandibular joint disorders | 71 | (14.5) | 111 | (22.3) | 0.002 * |
| Non-musculoskeletal disorder(s) | 65 | (13.4) | 60 | (12.1) | 0.548 |
| Treating the following patient subgroups | |||||
| Children (4 to 18 years) | 96 | (19.6) | 173 | (34.5) | <0.001 * |
| Older people (65 years or over) | 252 | (51.5) | 319 | (63.7) | <0.001 * |
| Pregnant women | 125 | (25.6) | 219 | (43.7) | <0.001 * |
| People with work-related injuries | 104 | (21.3) | 255 | (50.9) | <0.001 * |
| People with traffic-related injuries | 28 | (5.7) | 113 | (22.6) | <0.001 * |
| People receiving post-surgical rehabilitation | 13 | (2.7) | 66 | (13.2) | <0.001 * |
| Non-English-speaking ethnic group(s) | 15 | (3.1) | 18 | (3.6) | 0.637 |
| Using the following techniques/management (done often) n (%) | |||||
| Strain/Counterstrain | 175 | (35.8) | 243 | (48.7) | <0.001 * |
| Muscle energy techniques | 367 | (75.1) | 419 | (83.8) | 0.001 * |
| High velocity low amplitude/Spinal manipulation | 264 | (54.0) | 367 | (73.4) | <0.001 * |
| Peripheral joint manipulation | 149 | (30.5) | 244 | (48.9) | <0.001 * |
| Soft tissue | 396 | (81.0) | 451 | (90.2) | <0.001 * |
| Myofascial release | 280 | (57.4) | 331 | (66.2) | 0.004 * |
| Cranial techniques | 140 | (28.6) | 92 | (18.4) | <0.001 * |
| Facilitated positional release | 73 | (15.0) | 93 | (18.6) | 0.129 |
| Needling techniques | 67 | (13.7) | 167 | (33.4) | <0.001 * |
| Visceral techniques | 58 | (11.9) | 40 | (8.0) | 0.042 * |
| Lymphatic pump | 41 | (8.4) | 43 | (8.6) | 0.903 |
| Autonomic balancing | 82 | (16.8) | 75 | (15.0) | 0.438 |
| Biodynamic techniques | 86 | (17.6) | 68 | (13.6) | 0.084 |
| Functional techniques | 124 | (25.4) | 145 | (29.0) | 0.198 |
| Balanced ligamentous tension/Ligamentous articular strain | 189 | (38.7) | 159 | (31.8) | 0.024 * |
| Exercise prescription | 308 | (63.0) | 425 | (85.2) | <0.001 * |
| Chapmans reflexes | 7 | (1.4) | 17 | (3.4) | 0.045 * |
| Shockwave therapy | 4 | (0.8) | 14 | (2.8) | 0.020 * |
| Ultrasound therapy | 8 | (1.6) | 19 | (3.8) | 0.038 * |
| TENS or other electrotherapy | 5 | (1.0) | 14 | (2.8) | 0.042 * |
| Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilisation | 2 | (0.4) | 10 | (2.0) | 0.023 * |
| Trigger point therapy | 88 | (18.0) | 170 | (34.0) | <0.001 * |
| Sports taping | 20 | (4.1) | 102 | (20.4) | <0.001 * |
* Statistically significant.
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Vaughan, B.; Adams, J.; Peng, W.; Fortington, L.V.; Fleischmann, M.; Fitzgerald, K.; Steel, A.; Sibritt, D. Understanding the Role of Sports Injury Management by Australian Osteopaths: A Cross Sectional Survey of 992 Practitioners. Appl. Sci. 2025, 15, 8397. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158397
AMA Style
Vaughan B, Adams J, Peng W, Fortington LV, Fleischmann M, Fitzgerald K, Steel A, Sibritt D. Understanding the Role of Sports Injury Management by Australian Osteopaths: A Cross Sectional Survey of 992 Practitioners. Applied Sciences. 2025; 15(15):8397. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158397
Chicago/Turabian StyleVaughan, Brett, Jon Adams, Wenbo Peng, Lauren V. Fortington, Michael Fleischmann, Kylie Fitzgerald, Amie Steel, and David Sibritt. 2025. "Understanding the Role of Sports Injury Management by Australian Osteopaths: A Cross Sectional Survey of 992 Practitioners" Applied Sciences 15, no. 15: 8397. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158397
APA StyleVaughan, B., Adams, J., Peng, W., Fortington, L. V., Fleischmann, M., Fitzgerald, K., Steel, A., & Sibritt, D. (2025). Understanding the Role of Sports Injury Management by Australian Osteopaths: A Cross Sectional Survey of 992 Practitioners. Applied Sciences, 15(15), 8397. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158397
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