TY - JOUR AU - Ihegihu, Ebere Yvonne AU - Iwuno, Onyebuchi Emmanuel AU - Okoye, Emmanuel Chiebuka AU - Okonkwo, Uchenna Prosper AU - Chukwuka, Benjamin Uzodinma AU - Amaechi, Ifeoma Adaigwe AU - Akobundu, Uzoamaka Nwakego PY - 2022/06/24 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF COMMUNITY PHYSIOTHERAPY AMONG PHYSIOTHERAPISTS IN SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY JF - Journal of Biomedical Investigation JA - JBI VL - 10 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://journals.unizik.edu.ng/jbi/article/view/1524 SP - 75-82 AB - <p><strong>Background</strong>: Community-dwellers are often in need of physiotherapy and rehabilitation for non-communicable disease conditions particularly chronic low back pain and cerebrovascular accidents. However, the access to physiotherapy and rehabilitation in rural areas is grossly inadequate.</p><p><strong>Aim of the study</strong>: This study aimed to ascertain the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of community physiotherapy amongst physiotherapists in southeastern Nigeria.</p><p><strong>Materials and Methods</strong>: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 81 physiotherapists possessing at least 2 years of clinical experience were consecutively sampled from 10 conveniently selected hospitals in the 5 southeastern states. We assessed participants using a validated self-administered Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) questionnaire. We summarized data using the statistics of percentage, mean and standard deviation. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test the influence of selected socio-demographic characteristics on knowledge, attitude and practice of Community Physiotherapy. Spearman rank-order correlation was used to test for the relationship among knowledge, attitude and practice of community physiotherapy.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: The mean age of participants (females = 57, males =43) was 36.3±6.5 years. Good knowledge (84.30±6.79%) and attitude (84.35±5.85%) and fair practice (74.76±9.33%) of community physiotherapy were observed among the study participants. There were significant correlations among knowledge, attitude and practice of community physiotherapy among physiotherapists (p&lt;0.05). Factors constituting a hindrance to the assimilation of community physiotherapy were poor remuneration and lack of basic social infrastructure.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: There is good knowledge and a good attitude and fair practice of community physiotherapy among physiotherapists in our settings. Efforts should be made to address the hindrances to community physiotherapy.</p> ER -