Factors influencing study of physiotherapy and preferred choice of specialisation among final year physiotherapy students in Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction:Over the years increasing number of students are seeking admission to study Physiotherapy in the universities leading to increased preference for specialization as compared with general practice. The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing the study of physiotherapy and preferred choice of specialization. Material and Method:The research was a cross-sectional survey involving final year physiotherapy students in three training institutions in South-West, Nigeria. The questionnaire is in three sections (section A sought responses on Socio-demographic characteristics, section B on factors influencing the study of Physiotherapy and section C on preferred choice of specialization). Content validation was carried out to eliminate ambiguity and ensure that all items of the questionnaire are relevant and well understood. Descriptive statistics of percentages, bar chart and mean were used to summarize data on age, factors influencing study of physiotherapy, the level of influence of each factor on preferred specialization areas of each participant and the factors influencing the choice of specialization.Result: There was a response rate of 72.2% and the mean age was 22.69±2.32 years. Out of the eight factors influencing study of physiotherapy, 'Desire to help people optimize their physical health and 'Personal interest' had the greatest influence with mean scores of 3.24 and 3.18 respectively. Ninety-eight participants (94.26%) were interested in pursuing postgraduate specialization in Physiotherapy. Orthopedics and Musculoskeletal physiotherapy is the most preferred specialization while Geriatrics is the least preferred specialization. Male students have preference for Sports while female have preference for Paediatric specialty.Conclusion: Exposure to specialties in Physiotherapy like Geriatrics and Cardio-pulmonary may help improve interest in those areas and hence increased preference for those specialties.