Research from Sally Mastwyk has revealed that physiotherapists can play an important role in tackling metabolic syndrome, a serious but often overlooked public health issue.
“Metabolic syndrome is characterised by a combination of risk factors, including excess abdominal fat, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels and elevated blood sugar.”
“Together, these factors increase a person’s risk of developing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes,” Sally explains.
Sally’s PhD research investigated how physiotherapists could help improve the identification and management of metabolic syndrome.
“We found that physiotherapist-led health promotion interventions in primary care can improve metabolic risk factors and physical activity levels in people with, or at risk of, metabolic syndrome,” she says.
Despite this, Sally says metabolic syndrome is not widely known within the profession.
“More than one in four physiotherapists in Australia and England had never heard of metabolic syndrome, suggesting that physiotherapists need further training to incorporate metabolic syndrome screening and management into their practice.”
To address this, Sally has recently undertaken a co-design project with a group of private practice physiotherapists to raise awareness of metabolic syndrome across the profession.
“We hope this project will support the integration of metabolic health screening and management into routine physiotherapy care.”
Sally’s next step will be to evaluate the training program in real-world settings and explore its long-term impact on patient care and the healthcare system.
