Adherence to sport injury rehabilitation programmes: a conceptual review

It is widely acknowledged that the importance of sound theoretical guidance is essential to any academic discipline. A common recommendation within the adherence literature related to sport injury rehabilitation has been the need to establish clear theoretical frameworks to guide research and practice. As such, an increasing amount of literature has employed conceptual models that include protection motivation theory, health action process approach, cognitive appraisal models, and attribution theory. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to critically evaluate these contemporary theoretical approaches that have been utilised within the sport injury rehabilitation adherence literature. Alongside this, practical implications emerging from this research base are outlined and future recommendations are suggested that may be of benefit to sports medicine practitioners and researchers alike.