Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Implementation in Intensive Care Units: A Survey Study

Dear Editor,

Turkish Thoracic Journal published an interesting and much-needed research article in 2019 by Cakmak et al. [1] titled “Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Implementation in Intensive Care Units: A Survey Study.” We have read the article and found it to be interesting and insightful. This article is informative and assists physiotherapists working in the ICU to implement chest physiotherapy effectively. We noticed some overlooked portions in this research article, which may be considered for further clarifications from the author.

First, the keyword “Intensive Care Unit” used in the abstract of the paper is repeated from the title, which can be replaced with ICU or Critical Care to avoid unnecessary wordiness. More unique keywords can be included, such as Chest Physiotherapy, Respiratory therapy, and Critical Care Physiotherapy, among others.

Second, the researcher mentioned an electronic survey, but did not specifically mention the mode of electronic communication (via emails or any social media). We are unable to determine how the questions are being formed and whether they have used any Google form or survey software.

Third, there is no information on validity of the survey questionnaire used in this study. Since the questionnaire was formed by the authors, it is important to ensure content and face validation before using it in the survey.

Furthermore, with regard to the statistical analysis, the authors have considered the probability value as <0.05; however, they have not mentioned the name of the statistical tool used in the study. One of the headings in Table 1 is mean±SD, but includes data in the form of counts and percentage. It’s better to present two tables. Inter-rater reliability between two independent assessors was mentioned; however, the authors have not named the statistical tool they used to check the same. We implore the authors to mention regarding the internal consistency of the same, which is imperative in reliability testing.

The researchers have well reported the findings of the study, but highlighting the aforementioned issues will make it more acceptable and stronger.