Preferred Communication Strategies Used by Physical Therapists in Chronic Pain Rehabilitation: A Qualitative Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis.

"Disclosure and Presentations The authors completed the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and reported no conflicts of interest. K. Maluf is a member of PTJ’s Editorial Board. Abstract and preliminary data were presented by the authors in a virtual poster presentation at: the 2021 International Association for the Study of Pain; Virtual World Congress on Pain; June 9–11 and June 16–18, 2021; virtual format."

"Funding This study was supported by a Ruth L. Kirschenstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1F31HD101274–01) awarded to C. Chapman."

"This review was registered in International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO: CRD42020166258) and follows reporting guidelines from the Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research statement. Consistent with prior reviews in the field of pain rehabilitation,, we conducted a meta-synthesis following procedures recommended by Sandelowski, Barroso, and Voils because this method is particularly suited for synthesis of data from qualitative studies using varied methodologies. After a systematic search of the literature, meta-synthesis of included studies was conducted in 3 stages: (1) relevant findings were extracted, (2) data were grouped based on topical similarity using thematic synthesis, and (3) findings were abstracted and formatted to eliminate redundancies while preserving the complexity of their content. In lieu of frequency effect sizes, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the contribution of included studies to the final set of abstracted communication themes. Each stage of the systematic review and meta-synthesis is further detailed below. Systematic Review Registration: This review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020166258)."