Evidence-Based Physiotherapy Practice in Paediatric Subdiscipline: A Cross-Sectional Study in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This cross-sectional study explored the behaviour, knowledge, skills and resources, opinion, and perceived barriers of paediatric physiotherapists practising in Saudi Arabia regarding evidence-based practice (EBP). Sixty-eight paediatric physiotherapists from Saudi Arabia participated. Data were collected by electronic questionnaire and the Likert scale was used to score knowledge, skills and resources, opinion, and barriers to EBP implementation. Approximately 78% of the participants were motivated to use EBP in their daily practise and 82.3% have reported the use of best scientific evidence in their clinical practise. Participants with higher database usage over the last 6 months showed significant association with EBP knowledge scores (t = 2.46, p = 0.01), skills and resources scores (t = 3.81, p < 0.001), and opinion scores (t = 2.43, p = 0.01). Furthermore, a higher level of education in participants was significantly associated with EBP knowledge scores (t = 2.41, p = 0.01). Most paediatric physiotherapists believed that EBP is essential in their clinical practise as it improves patient care and quality of health services. Difficulty in obtaining full-text papers and lack of time were identified as major barriers to implementing EBP followed by the lack of management support, motivation in research, and EBP training.

Saudi physiotherapists' attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, and barriers towards evidence-based practice: A cross-sectional study

“…This emphasizes the importance of creating motivation for Saudi physiotherapists that makes them more enthusiastic about EBP. Another study was conducted on 68 Saudi pediatric physiotherapists revealed that almost 78% were motivated to apply EBP in their everyday practice, and 82.3% had reported using the best available scientific evidence in clinical practice, [33] which were slightly higher than the present study, 74% and 79.9% respectively. Whereas, this study was conducted on pediatric physiotherapists without other specialities, and perhaps the small sample size had a positive effect on their responses.…”

“…However, the Colombian physiotherapists [29] found the deficiency in research skills was their primary barrier, while the Brazilian physiotherapists reported that the most common barrier was to accessing full-text publications. [30] The paediatric physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia said that their biggest challenges were finding full-text articles and limited time, followed by insufficient management support, lack of enthusiasm for research, and inadequate EBP training, [33] which illustrates that the lack of time is a common between this study and the current research. However, another Saudi study.…”