In this prospective observational survey, forty-seven Belgian physiotherapists agreed to prescribe exercise intensity, frequency, session duration, program duration, and exercise type (endurance or strength training) for the same three patient cases. Exercise prescriptions were compared between clinicians and relations with clinician characteristics were studied. In addition, the agreement between physiotherapists' exercise prescriptions and those from international recommendations (based on a maximal score of 60/per case) was assessed.
Physiotherapists are often confronted with patients with (elevated risk for) cardiovascular disease (CVD), even when this is not the primary indication for physiotherapy. Hence, physiotherapists should be able to provide evidence-based exercise advice to these patients, but this has not been assessed. The aim of this study was therefore to assess whether exercise prescriptions by physiotherapists to patients with CVD are in accordance with international recommendations.