DETERMINING IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CLINICAL PRACTICE & ITS ASSOCIATION WITH LIFESTYLE, ECONOMIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG INDIAN PHYSIOTHERAPY PROFESSIONALS

P. Sethi¹, P. Kumar², H. Kaushik³, J. Modi²

¹Department of Physiotherapy, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi, India, ²Amity University, Amity Institute of Physiotherapy, Noida, India, ³GD Goenka University, Department of Physiotherapy, Haryana, India

Background: The pandemic has generated major uncertainties at a personal and professional levels among healthcare workers, resulting in experiencing enormous changes in their lives. Recent studies have established the great importance of physiotherapy in expediting recovery during active covid infection and recovery phase. Studies on impact of Covid-19 on physical, mental, social, and economic wellbeing of physiotherapy professionals needs to be conducted to understand how this pandemic has affected service delivery and overall health.

Purpose: This study aims to determine the impact of COVID -19 on clinical practice and its association with lifestyle, economic and psychological well-being among Indian Physiotherapy professionals.

Methods: A cross-sectional correlation survey study using a Google survey form was shared to collect information about the impact of Covid-19 on clinical practice and its association with lifestyle, economic and psychological well-being. Data were managed on the excel sheet using SPSS version 21.0 and categorical variables were analyzed using the chi-square test and effect of the different covariates was quantified using logistic regression analysis considering the pairwise interactions by the odd ratios (OR) and level of significant p values < 0.05.

Results: The data has been gathered from a sample size of 391. Data suggested that covid-19 has significantly impacted clinical practice or economic activity of the physiotherapist i.e., decreased employment opportunities, excessive financial hardship, patient footfall during & after lockdown as well as number of referrals from other professionals (² = 109.68; p<0.05). In turn, at the time of lockdown, the therapists showed weight gain and high psychological pressure. 64.19% therapists start shifting towards telerehabilitation instead of delaying the treatment during the pandemic used different platforms for telerehabilitation and planned innovative rehabilitation programs. Logistic regression model showed that there was strong association between the place of the clinical practice (OR= .090, p= .002) and decrease in the patients’ footfall (OR= .043, p= .029) seen during COVID-19. Discontinuation of clinical practice was significantly associated with musculoskeletal pains or aches (OR= .270, p= .035) and little pleasure in doing things (OR= .401, p= .037) during COVID-19. The positive impact of lockdown was seen on levels of physical activity which dramatically improved (OR= 4.457, p=.002) among physiotherapy practitioners.

Conclusions: The findings of this study have confirmed the significant impact of COVID-19 on professional and personal lives, health and lifestyle of physiotherapy practitioners. On the other hand, clinical methods of practice were modified and practitioners resorted to alternate methods like video and audio consultation. Study results encouraged the use of other alternatives during such situations.

Implications: The challenging situation of Covid-19 infection affected the personal lives and had a negative effect on their health, lifestyle and professional stability of physiotherapy practitioners. Using the innovative and encouraging alternatives methods for patient care and management during such situations for instance telerehabilitation is important.

Funding acknowledgements: None

Keywords:
Covid-19
Physiotherapy Practitioners
Tele-rehabilitation

Topics:
Professional practice: other
COVID-19
Professional issues

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Amity Institute of Physiotherapy, Amity University, Noida

Committee: AIPT NTCC Committee

Ethics number: NTCC/MPT-Neuro/21-22/Jul2021/01