Evaluating the Effectiveness of Clinical Practice Guideline Adherence for Patellofemoral Pain

Clinical examination procedures will be used to identify all appropriate impairment subcategories (Overuse/Overload without Other Impairment, PFP with Movement Coordination Deficits, PFP with Muscle Performance Deficits, PFP with Mobility Impairments) and create a subcategory-specific or multimodal (for patients classified to \>1 subcategory) plan of care. Research physical therapists will target all applicable impairment subcategories using the corresponding CPG-recommended interventions, all of which are recommended for use as part of standard-of-care physical therapy practice. The duration and length of care will not be prespecified or standardized across participants to allow flexibility pending participant's care needs and schedule (e.g., vacation, short-term TDY status); however, research PTs will be trained to target providing no more than 10-12 visits over no more than 6-8 weeks to promote generalizability of the CPG-adherent intervention.

Usual physical therapy care will be provided by a licensed outpatient staff physical therapist who is not associated with the research team. The outpatient physical therapists will not treat participants in the CPG-adherent group and will be free to treat their participants based on their current personal and organizational clinical practice standards. The research team will neither influence nor restrict the evaluations conducted or interventions provided.