A survey and analysis of evidence for advanced soft tissue techniques in UK sports therapy curricula

Introduction In many instances, research in the area of manual therapy has been based on collections of anecdotal evidence, opinion editorials by practitioners, and poorly structured case studies/case series. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to identify areas within the current research for Neuromuscular Techniques where scientific evidence is lacking, and to propose a strategy for the establishment of a research driven evidence base. Where some research evidence is present, the objective will be to provide a systematically assessed evidence base to underpin the technique. Methods An e-mail survey of UK Universities was carried out to determine the type of techniques being taught. An inclusion criterion was created by adapting the methodology established by the Cochrane Collaboration and PEDro. Once the relevant articles were identified, a systematic review was carried out and a meta-analysis was applied to the literature to determine the 'quality' of the papers retrieved in each area. Results The results of the study showed that even though there is a wealth of literature available within this area, the quality of the papers available is not sufficient to determine an effective treatment protocol. Conclusion In conclusion, the research that is available within the field of Neuromuscular Techniques is currently inconsistent and lacking clarity, therefore more research is needed in the area in order to 'fill in' the gaps in the literature. Without a fully complete and methodologically sound evidence base, Universities within the UK are not able to effectively adopt an evidence based teaching practice. The proposals and templates highlighted above are recommended to be put into place to go some way to fill these areas where research is lacking so that Sports Therapy researchers are able to drive our understanding of NMT forward.