Awareness and perception of physiotherapy among senior students of selected secondary schools in a South-Western community of Nigeria

Abstract

Context: Physiotherapy plays a significant role in health care system. The pursuit of career in physiotherapy depends largely on the information available to the students about the practice of physiotherapy.Aims: To investigate the level of awareness and perception of physiotherapy profession among senior secondary school students.Settings and Design: The cross-sectional study recruited 259 senior class students in selected secondary schools in Owo local government area of Ondo-state, South-western Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A self-administered questionnaire adapted from similar studies was used to obtain information on level of awareness and perception of physiotherapy.Statistical Analysis Used: Data were summarized using mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentiles.Results: 71.0% of participants were aware of physiotherapy profession. 76.8% were aware that physiotherapy can be studied in University while others believed it can be studied in polytechnic (3.9%), college of education (6.6%) and technical schools (5.4%). 45.9% knew about adequate subject combination for gaining admission to study physiotherapy while 54.1% did not know about adequate subject combination. The overall knowledge score of <48.0% among the participants indicated inadequate knowledge about physiotherapy practice, treatment modalities and specialties.Conclusions: Participants in this study demonstrated a high level of awareness about physiotherapy. The knowledge level of the participants about the practice of physiotherapy, treatment modalities and specialties other than orthopedic remains inadequate. Professional body of Physiotherapy should create a detailed career talk in secondary school to increase the level of awareness and knowledge about the practice of physiotherapy, treatment modalities and specialties.