Adherence to exercise in lateral elbow tendinopathy, a scoping review

Understanding the true effects of exercise in the treatment of lateral elbow tendinopathy (LET) is hampered by insufficient information or a lack of standardisation in defining, measuring, reporting and analysis of exercise adherence.

This scoping review aimed to explore both the quantity and scope of reporting of exercise adherence in published studies of participants with LET.

Six databases were searched to identify original research studies written in English, investigating therapeutic exercise for LET. Eligible studies were first searched for terms related to exercise adherence. If provided, information on the terminology, definition, measurement, results and analysis of adherence were collated and summarised. Recommendations for standardized reporting of exercise adherence were developed.

104 studies were identified, of which 74 (71%) did not report adherence or related terms. Reference to exercise compliance or adherence occurred in 17 and 13 studies respectively. Adherence was most commonly defined as the frequency or percentage of exercise sessions completed compared to the recommendation and measured by self-reported diary. Few studies defined a threshold for adherence, provided comprehensive reporting of results or analysis of exercise adherence.

Reporting of exercise adherence in studies of LET was limited in both quantity and scope. Recommendations are made to improve the quality and consistency of reporting in future studies.