Our research will give us data on how the approval of legislation has impacted the development of physiotherapy in Europe countries that have approved the Law for Physiotherapy, Physiotherapy Practice Act, and have physiotherapy a profession regulated by law, and also the that who did not approved the legislation according to the guideline. Additionally, information on the number of physiotherapists per 10,000 population and the availability of postgraduate (MSc.PT, PhD.PT) programs, specialization programs, and the duration of BSc physiotherapy programs was also collected.
This study shows the importance of understanding the legislative process to develop physiotherapy.
This study utilized a cross-sectional, descriptive approach to evaluate the legislative and regulatory frameworks governing the physiotherapy profession across 27 countries. The aim was to assess the degree of compliance with three key regulatory measures: (1) the existence of a special law about physiotherapy, (2) the approval of a Physiotherapy Practice Act, and (3) the legal recognition of physiotherapy as a regulated profession.
Descriptive statistical methods were applied using SPSS version 26.0 for Windows. Skewness and kurtosis were evaluated to assess data distribution characteristics. Normality of the data was tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests.Mean values, standard deviations, and confidence intervals were computed for quantitative variables such as the number of physiotherapists per 10,000 population.
Approximately 44.4% of the countries surveyed exhibit full compliance with all three considered regulatory criteria, encompassing a special law about physiotherapy, an approved Physiotherapy Practice Act, and official recognition of physiotherapy as a regulated profession by law.
Countries with no compliance (NNN) report the lowest mean number of physiotherapists per 10,000 population at 2.58, accompanied by a relatively narrow 95% confidence interval (CI) of [-3.17, 8.33]. The YYY category, indicative of full compliance with regulatory measures, presents the most diverse array of program durations. While 3-year programs remain prevalent (33.3%), there's a significant representation of 4-year programs (25%), 3+2 integrated programs (16.7%), and combined 3 and 4-year programs (16.7%).
Our descriptive analysis suggests a potential relationship between the level of legislative and regulatory compliance and the density of the physiotherapy workforce across countries. The summary data indicates that countries with comprehensive regulatory frameworks appear to have higher densities of physiotherapists.
The data suggest that while regulatory compliance plays a critical role in shaping the educational landscape of the physiotherapy profession, it is not the sole determinant of specialization availability.
The discrepancy in the number of physiotherapists per 10,000 population, from 2,4 to 25 physiotherapists per 10,000 population shows the effect legislation has on the development of physiotherapy as a profession.
ER-WCPT and WCPT should support member associations to urge legislation approval for physiotherapy and offer support to specializing programs in physiotherapy.
Competencies
Education
