Second strategy of recruitment
Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention for the Health and Welfare Services (BGW)
Each self-employed physical therapist in Germany is legally obliged to insure his or her employees within the BGW. Accident insurance for the self-employed themselves is voluntary. Therefore, the majority of physical therapists who work for private (non-governmental) institutions can be contacted through the BGW. This second strategy of recruitment will be two-staged. First, 100 institutions that employ physical therapists will be randomly selected from all physiotherapy practices insured by the BGW (n ≈ 46 500). Unfortunately, the number of physical therapists working in each establishment is not documented; therefore the exact number of subjects contacted will remain unclear. The selected institutions will be informed through the BGW about the aims and contents of the study and asked to participate. If an institution agrees, the enclosed reply has to be returned (by mail or fax) to the study coordination stating how many employees are working in their establishment. On the basis of these responses, the study coordination will send the appropriate number of requested questionnaires