ATTITUDE AND ANXIETY OF PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENTS TOWARDS RESEARCH: A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY

Abstract

Physiotherapy research promotes optimum care for patients through evidence-based physiotherapy practice. Students' attitude towards research motivates them to engage in research, develop research skills and apply research findings in clinical settings to promote positive patients outcome. Aim: The aim of this study is to analyse the attitudes and anxiety of undergraduate Physiotherapy students towards research component. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out with purposively selected students (n=150) from one physiotherapy college (Third-year BPT, final year BPT and internee). With informed voluntary consent, data on students’ attitude and anxie-ty toward research were collected using Attitudes Toward Research (ATR) scale which was devised by Elena T. Papanastasiou in 2005. ATR consists of 32 items measured on a 7- point Likert scale. A value of 1 indicates a response of ‘strongly disagree’ and a value of 7 corresponds to ‘strongly agree’. Analyses were performed using SPSS version 20. Results: Most of the participants (80%) reported that research is useful for the career. Positive attitude towards research was demonstrated by 69.33% physiotherapy students and 63.33% reported that research plays an im-portant role in professional and personal life. However, a large proportion of students (72.67%) have anxiety towards research and 74% of students reported for research difficulty. Conclusion: Although many of the students have a fa-vourable attitude towards the research and acknowledge its usefulness and benefit to physiotherapy profession, many of them perceived their research course as stressful and have anxiety towards the research.