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The aim of this research is to conduct a systematic review analysing the role of the physiotherapy interventions in palliative care. PRISMA as a critical appraisal tool was utilised for the selection of the research articles. The inclusion criteria were based on the year of publication, ease of availability, language, geographical location, and study type. To ensure the credibility, databases such as Elsevier, Proquest, and EBSCO Host were used to filter the grey content. Data published in the past ten years (2009-onwards) was only included to ensure the selection of the most recent interventions used by the physiotherapists. A total of 11 articles were selected which determined that physiotherapy interventions involving breathing exercises, aerobic exercises, manual therapies, and educational awareness were critical to promoting the functional capability and empower the patients.

Background This systematic review was conducted with the first objective aimed at providing an overview of the physiological characteristics commonly evaluated in rugby and the corresponding tests used to measure each construct. Secondly, the measurement properties of all identified tests per physiological construct were evaluated with the ultimate purpose of identifying tests with strongest level of evidence per construct. Methods The review was conducted in two stages. In all stages, electronic databases of EBSCOhost, Medline and Scopus were searched for full-text articles. Stage 1 included studies examining physiological characteristics in rugby. Stage 2 included studies evaluating measurement properties of all tests identified in Stage 1 either in rugby or related sports such as Australian Rules football and Soccer. Two independent reviewers screened relevant articles from titles and abstracts for both stages. Results Seventy studies met the inclusion criteria for Stage 1. The studies described 63 tests assessing speed (8), agility/change of direction speed (7), upper-body muscular endurance (8), upper-body muscular power (6), upper-body muscular strength (5), anaerobic endurance (4), maximal aerobic power (4), lower-body muscular power (3), prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability/endurance (5), lower-body muscular strength (5), repeated high-intensity exercise performance (3), repeated-sprint ability (2), repeated-effort ability (1), maximal aerobic speed (1) and abdominal endurance (1). Stage 2 identified 20 studies describing measurement properties of 21 different tests. Only moderate evidence was found for the reliability of the 30–15 Intermittent Fitness. There was limited evidence found for the reliability and/or validity of 5 m, 10 m, 20 m speed tests, 505 test, modified 505 test, L run test, Sergeant Jump test and bench press repetitions-to-fatigue tests. There was no information from high-quality studies on the measurement properties of all the other tests identified in stage 1. Conclusion A number of physiological characteristics are evaluated in rugby. Each physiological construct has multiple tests for measurement. However, there is paucity of information on measurement properties from high-quality studies for the tests. This raises questions about the usefulness and applicability of these tests in rugby and creates a need for high-quality future studies evaluating measurement properties of these physiological tests. Trial registrations PROSPERO CRD 42015029747. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13102-017-0081-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Stage 1 search strategy designed for Medline via PubMed. (DOCX 14Â kb)

Stage 2 search strategy designed for Medline via PubMed. (DOCX 14Â kb)

PRISMA-P 2015 Checklist. (DOCX 34Â kb)

Background Physiotherapy is an integral part of treatment for paediatric burns. In Zimbabwe, children are admitted in paediatric burn unit with their caregivers, who play important roles such as providing explanation and obtaining cooperation of the child during physiotherapy, which is often uncomfortable or painful to the patient. The aim of this study was to determine the perspectives of caregivers towards physiotherapy interventions administered to hospitalized children at central hospitals in Harare, Zimbabwe. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires. The study was carried out at two large central hospitals (Parirenyatwa Hospital and Harare Central Hospital). The study targeted all the caregivers of children below the age of 12 years with a diagnosis of burns, irrespective of severity or area affected, who were admitted in the two paediatric burn units. Of the 34 caregivers eligible to participate, 31 (91.1 %) questionnaires had complete data and were analysed. The analyses were done using Statistica version 12.0. Results The median age of the caregivers was 28 years (IQR = 24–33 years). Female caregivers constituted 90.3 % of the sample. The majority of the caregivers (n = 26, 83.9 %) were biological mothers to the hospitalised child. The majority of children (n = 20, 64.5 %) hospitalised were between 0 and 4 years. The commonest cause of burns was scalding (n = 19, 61.2 %). The burns were mainly in the upper extremities (n = 11, 35.5 %). Physiotherapy for the burns was mainly active and passive joint range of motion exercises (n = 30, 96.8 %). The caregivers’ perceptions towards physiotherapy were mainly positive (n = 20, 64.5 %) indicating that physiotherapy plays an important role in burn management. Of the 21 caregivers given a ward exercise programme, 13 (61.9 %) were not compliant. Conclusions Caregivers’ perspectives towards physiotherapy were largely positive and are similar to those found in other studies. The majority of the caregivers indicated that physiotherapy was important in the overall management of burns leading to proper healing of the wounds without complications.