BODY IMAGE PERCEPTION: A STUDY IN HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS OF THE PHYSIOTHERAPY PROGRAM

F. Patiño Oviedo¹, A.C. Peña Waltero¹

Background: Body image is the representation that each person constructs in his mind, through how he perceives, imagines, feels, and acts with respect to his own body.It develops evolutionarily since it is interiorizing from the experience of the body in the different stages of life. Therefore, this body representation at the brain level can be understood as an internal model, represented from the relationship between body, environment, and task, becoming a dynamic figure that is built from the information of the sensory and proprioceptive systems.

Purpose: To identify the perception of body Image during training as physiotherapists in students of first and ninth semester of physical therapy.

Methods: Descriptive-comparative, quantitative study with two groups: the first group with first semester Physiotherapy students (n=19), the second group with ninth semester students (n=19) from the 2019-2 academic period, The following were considered as exclusion criteria: students who know the test or have participated in a similar test before, students who report any musculoskeletal disorder that generates alteration in body image, students who have a clinical psychological diagnosis that alters body image. Non-probability sampling was performed. The evaluation instrument used was the human figure test, the original scale is the Leopold Caligor’s TD8H (1947); Alvis & Cols (2005) modified the test changing it from 8 drawings to only 3 drawings (TD3H), to be used as an evaluation tool for human body movement (Camacho, 2015). The test looks to describe the representation of himself in a drawing, the indication that the participant receives is "draw a human figure". This study presents ethical approval by the Corporación Universitaria Iberoamericana.

Results: The interpretation of the drawings of their body image showed that 58% of the physiotherapy students in their first semester had an excellent perception of their body image, while 42% had a good perception. In contrast, 58% of physiotherapy students in their ninth semester had good perception and 42% had excellent perception of their body image.

Conclusion(s): The ninth semester students evidenced a perception of body image decreased, showing a wrong interpretation of their body in relation to the environment, space and task, relating to the mental representation that they integrated of their body through the practical experiences that they developed during their training as physiotherapists; thus possibly leading the student to present difficulties in understanding and performing the analysis of human body movement. It is necessary in future studies to delve into the subject.

Implications: The perception of body image provides the student with the recognition of his body in any situation and provides him with the necessary information to establish relationships with the environment. Therefore, it allows the physiotherapist in training to recognize and analyze the characteristics of human body movement, in relation to environment and task, in order to develop a three-dimensional representation of his body and also interacts more assertively with the body of the other.

Funding, acknowledgements: was financed by the Physiotherapy program of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Corporacion Universitaria Iberoamericana.

Keywords: Body Image, Physiotherapy, High School

Topic: Education

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Corporación Universitaria Iberoamericana

Committee: Comite de ética de Investigación, Corporación Universitaria Iberoamericana

Ethics number: 201910J069