Attitude of Physical Therapy Students towards People with Disability

Abstract

Background: Attitudes are essential factors inducing interactions between healthcare providers and their patients. In the context of physical therapy, understanding students' attitudes towards individuals with disabilities is of great importance for providing effective and empathetic care. The term disability means person with any physical, sensory, intellectual, hearing and visual dysfunction or impairment that affects social, economic and environmental participation. 

Objective: The objective of this study was to find out the attitude of physical therapy students towards disabled people.

Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to examine the attitudes of 100 physical therapy students towards individuals with disabilities. Participants were selected using a non-probability convenient sampling technique. This approach was chosen for its practicality and accessibility. The survey utilized the "Attitude towards Disabled Person" scale as the primary tool for data collection. Data was collected through the administration of the questionnaire to participants who met the predefined inclusion criteria. These criteria were established to ensure that the sample accurately represented the target population of interest.

Results: Among the 100 participants, a significant 23% expressed strong agreement with the idea that individuals with disabilities are inherently more sensitive, while 58% simply agreed. The results were remarkably in favor about the sensitivity of disabled people. When asked about the social interaction of disabled people, 3% Physical therapists strongly agreed and 12% agreed that these people are sociable. On the other hand 7% strongly disagreed and 34% disagreed that people with disability are not much sociable. The results concluded that 12% strongly disagreed and 31% disagreed to the asked question that the person with disability cannot be discouraged easily. Majority of the participants think that it’s easy to discourage a person with disability. 21% students are strongly agreed and 46% agreed that disabled people should communicate with other people of society. Overall results of this study show that physical therapy students had negative attitude i.e. 72% and average of positive attitude variables is 67%. with Trans tibial amputation