Prevention Practice: A Physical Therapist's Guide to Health, Fitness, and Wellness

Thompson CR, ed. Thorofare, NJ 08086, Slack Inc, 2007, hardcover, 296 pp, ISBN: 978-1-55642-61 7-9, $47.95.

Holistic and preventive approaches to healthy living are important aspects of health

care and maintenance. This book combines the nation's health care goal of increasing access to, and improving the quality of, health care with the American Physical Therapy Association's (APTA) Vision 2020 goal of extending the scope of preventive care through direct access. The editor and her contributors introduce key concepts of health, fitness, and wellness to the intended audience of physical therapist clinicians and physical therapist students.

The first 3 chapters present an overview of a holistic perspective of health and the physical therapist's relationship to health and wellness promotion, related Healthy People 2010 goals, and all aspects of fitness. Chapter 4 addresses fitness training and summarizes types of exercise, activities for special populations, and screening and preparation for exercise. It also presents a formula for exercise prescription that includes the element of enjoyment. Precautions and special considerations are discussed, and models related to preparedness for exercise, sustenance of exercise, and fitness programs are presented. The need for community support for physical activity is strongly supported.

Screening for health, fitness, and wellness is reviewed in chapter 5. Chapters 6 through 9 address issues related to health, fitness, and wellness for children and adolescents, adults (specifically women), and older adults. The chapter related to women focuses on pregnancy, and the chapter on older adults focuses on prevention and special considerations related to aging. Chapter 10 discusses resources to optimize health and wellness. Chapter 11 discusses health promotion and addresses injury prevention from a broad perspective, including sections on violence, falls, alcoholism, and prevention of hearing loss. Chapters 12 through 15 address prevention practice for musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary, neuromuscular, and integumentary conditions. Chapter 16 specifically addresses prevention practice for people with developmental disabilities. Advocacy is promoted and discussed in chapter 17, and the chapter includes suggestions for advocacy at local, state, national, and global levels with guidance for developing advocacy skills. Chapters 18 and 19 provide overviews of marketing health and wellness and a business model for managing a prevention practice.

This book provides an overview of prevention practice that addresses the needs of physical therapists who would like to develop and expand their practice to include health, fitness, and wellness promotion. Although the scope is comprehensive, physical therapist students will find that other textbooks cover this content more thoroughly than this book. The text refers superficially to many aspects of physical therapist examination and intervention as components of prevention practice. Students in physical therapist education programs will need to obtain in-depth information about those procedures through instruction and from other texts. For example, in chapter 3, many examination procedures are presented without discussion of validity and reliability or indications for selection of procedures. The greatest weakness of this text is its superficial attention to the examination and intervention tools that physical therapists need to engage in best prevention practice.

The information presented in this text is current and up to date. Examples of screening tools for health, wellness, and fitness are provided, but validity and reliability of the instruments are not discussed. The measures presented, however, are readily available and the psychometric properties are obtainable elsewhere. References from primary, peer-reviewed sources are provided and supplemented with government resources and appropriate Internet sites.

This book is well written. The editor and her contributors present the information in a sequence that builds from the basic introductory information to applications and on to healthy and special populations across the lifespan. The book's usefulness to physical therapists in different practice settings is conveyed in the system-specific chapters. Those who want to establish a prevention practice to promote health, fitness, and wellness will find the last 2 chapters especially helpful. Chapters that are written with contributing authors are consistent in format and style with the rest of the book. Tables and figures are used effectively to complement and supplement the text. Additional resources provide links to a comprehensive array of information designed to promote health, fitness, and wellness. The exercises in the downloadable instructor's guide are appropriate and provide opportunities for students to explore and apply the principles of health promotion in all aspects of physical therapist practice.

Prevention Practice appropriately describes the topic of health, fitness, and wellness promotion and provides guidance to develop, establish, and maintain such a practice. The editor intended this book as a complement to the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice, and the book provides links to the Healthy People 2010 goals: to improve health and access to health care for all Americans.

This book is meant to be used as a resource for physical therapists across practice settings. Physical therapists who wish to develop the preventive component of their practice will find this book very helpful. It provides a focused introduction to the topic, and many resources are provided with the editor's expert guidance on those resources and how best to use them. Instructors in physical therapist education programs may find that this book is a useful primary text, as it is currently the only text available that addresses the topic specifically in relation to physical therapist practice. The instructor's manual provides effective exercises for each chapter. Students or recent graduates with a desire to specialize in prevention practice should use this text as a primary resource.

Mary Jean Gelsomino

MJ Gelsomino, PT, DPT, is Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy, Utica College, Utica, NY.

[DOI: 10.2522/ptj.2008.88.3.410]