THE BARRIERS OF RESEARCH IN PHYSIOTHERAPY: KUWAIT PERSPECTIVE

N. Alsiri¹, A. Al-Attar², F. Alansari³, A. Sadeq⁴

Background: The engagement of clinicians and healthcare organizations in scientific research leads to improvement of healthcare performance. However, little scientific physiotherapy research is produced in Kuwait as probably due to facing some barriers with respect to research activities. Investigating physiotherapy research barriers in Kuwait would provide valuable information to enable the administrative officials to evaluate and combat those barriers and advance and strengthen physiotherapy research activities, and consequently physicotherapy performance. Yet, the literature is limited in studies to specifically explore the research barriers in physiotherapy profession worldwide, in the Middle East and in Kuwait.  

Purpose: The study aimed to explore the research barriers in physiotherapy in Kuwait. Ultimately, future recommendations can be established.  

Methods: A cross-sectional research design and an online questionnaire method were used to achieve the research objective. The questionnaire was constructed based on an intensive literature review to identify the variables which might potentially explain the difficulties in conducting physiotherapy research in Kuwait. Then an expert committee meeting was held to discuss the identified variables including physiotherapists with MSc/PhD degrees and have experience in conducting research in Kuwait. The expert committee approved the questionnaire items and further reviewed the questionnaire for content accuracy, face validity, construction and grammatical check. The questionnaire consists of four domains: participants characteristic, research background, research barriers, and encouragement for future research. Surveymonkey.com was used to design and create the online questionnaire, which consists of eleven items and requires 10-15 minutes to be completed. The inclusion criteria were registered physiotherapists who are working in Kuwait in different healthcare sectors. Registered physiotherapists were approached through the Physical Therapy Administration who contacted the head of departments to distribute the online questionnaire officially to the staff through WhatsApp groups. An official invitation announcement was also distributed to Kuwait Physiotherapy Departments. It has been indicted that the submission of the questionnaire will be considered as an informed consent.

Results: Three hundred and eleven physiotherapists responded to the questionnaire; 67% were female aged 25-44 years old, and 78% of the respondents have Bachelor degree. In terms of research background, 55% of the participants read academic articles on monthly basis, 25% on weekly basis, and 4% on daily basis. 53% of the participants conducted scientific research at least once. In terms of research barriers, the major factor was lack of time; 45%, followed by lack of research skills and lack of resources of 41% and 40% respectively. Other factors were also identified including workload; 29%, difficulties in gaining the ethical approval; 27%, lack of motivation; 26%, lack of support; 25%, lack of participants; 22%, and lifetime responsibilities; 21%. In terms of encouragements for future research, research workshops and lectures have been suggested by 75% of the participants, while awards and recognition for researchers have been suggested by 52% of the participants. Encouragement from the head of departments has been suggested by 45% of the participants.

Conclusion(s): Physiotherapy research can be advanced in Kuwait by targeting the identified barriers.

Implications: Administrative officials can combat these barriers to consequently strengthen the physiotherapy research and profession.

Funding, acknowledgements: The study is funded by Kuwait Physical Therapy Administrative, Ministry of Health, Kuwait.

Keywords: Physiotherapy, Research, barriers

Topic: Research methodology, knowledge translation & implementation science

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Ministry of Health, Kuwait

Committee: Research Ethics Commitee

Ethics number: 1076/2019