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Dassanayake U.1, Silva S.N.2
1International Institute of Health Sciences, Physiotherapy, Welisara, Sri Lanka, 2International Institute of Health Sciences, Academic, Welisara, Sri Lanka
Background: Like most countries in the world, the elderly population in Sri Lanka is also increasing gradually. According to WHO, by the year 2025, the world will host 1.2 billion people aged 60 and over and the number will be rising to 1.9 billion by 2050. Among the increasing health needs of the elderly, the disabilities and therefore need for rehabilitation also increases. Since Sri Lanka has a well establish traditional treatment system of indigenous medicine and also since physiotherapy is fairly a novel field to Sri Lankan rural settings, the use of physiotherapy for rehabilitative purposes is less among the elderly. This leads to worsening of complications due to disabilities. In order to create a framework to promote geriatric physiotherapy, it is therefore important to first assess their current awareness of it.
Purpose: To assess the awareness on physiotherapy and the need for physiotherapy among the elderly people in North Central province of Sri Lanka.
Methods: A descriptive cross sectional quantitative study was done on 300 elderly men and women, from Kurunegala District, a district in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. The participants were selected using convenience sampling and data collection was done using an interviewer administered questionnaire.
Results: 74% of elders were between 60-70 years in age. Out of 300 elders, majority were educated up to Ordinary levels; which was 40%. 31% of elders were not familiar with the word, physiotherapy. Only 68% of the elderly people were aware about the existence of physiotherapy in Sri Lanka. Further, 39% of elders had received information about physiotherapy from government hospitals in Sri Lanka. 33% of them were unaware about what physiotherapist do. However 36% of the elders thought physiotherapy was practiced by doctors. From the elders who knew about the physiotherapy, 30% thought that they have to meet a physiotherapist only when the doctors prescribed. 88% of the elders were interested in knowing more about physiotherapy. 29% of the elders were complaining about back pain while 24% of them had arthritis. Only 24% of them did seek physiotherapy as a treatment. 64% had improvement after getting physiotherapy treatments. 47% of elders opted to use Ayurveda treatments for their conditions. 68% of the elders mentioned lack of awareness as the reason for not taking Physiotherapy treatments for their conditions.
Conclusion(s): Majority of the elders had poor knowledge on Physiotherapy and its uses. Despite good outcomes of physiotherapy, many did not opt to use it due to the lack of knowledge.
Implications: This implies that physiotherapy has not penetrated the elderly communities as a treatment method. Therefore the available facilities are probably underutilized as well. This might be contributing to worsening of some of the disabilities and disease conditions.
Funding acknowledgements: Self funding research. The author would like to acknowledge the assistance from International Institute of Health Sciences Sri Lanka.
Topic: Older people
Ethics approval: Bioinquirer ethics review committee, Sri Lanka
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
