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Abaraogu U.1, Duru D.2, Frantz J.3, Dean E.4
1University of Nigeria, Department of Medical Rehabilitation, Enugu, Nigeria, 2University of Nigeria, Medical Rehabilitation, Enugu, Nigeria, 3University of Western Cape, Physiotherapy, Cape Town, South Africa, 4University of British Columbia, Physical Therapy, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Background: The African continent constitutes one of the last frontiers for not only expanding physical therapy services but developing research. Of priority, the World Health Organization has highlighted the need for preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases in Africa with regional meetings to formulate strategic action plans. In contemporary definitions of physical therapy and thrusts within the profession to address clients/patients holistically, understanding risk factors for lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases as well as their manifestations are becoming a mainstay of practice. To effect optimal health and risk factor assessment, intervention, and evaluation, African physical therapists need to know how best to do this within their contexts.
Purpose: To explore and describe the perceptions and reflections of conducting and publishing research related to non-communicable diseases in Africa among physical therapists.
Methods: We assembled the perceptions and reflections of physical therapists shared experiences in developing, conducting, and publishing research related to Africa. Our sources were three physical therapy summits on global health, input from our research team, and knowledge of the experiences of other research teams in Africa. We explored the caveats and opportunities based on our experiences in conducting research in Nigeria, three physical therapy summits on global health, and through our collective knowledge of the experiences of the African physical therapy research network. We propose that elucidation of methodological issues in particular will lead to not only high quality research but also research that is highly publication worthy in leading professional journals.
Results: Much opportunity exists for both original research within the African context particularly related to physical therapys leading role in addressing non-communicable diseases, as well as replication and extension studies. Given resource limitations, quality replication and extension studies can be readily conducted with committed teams with sound and preferably experienced leadership. International collaborations and mentoring can be an important vehicle for facilitating such initiatives. Challenges and caveats include the substantial cultural and linguistic challenges across and within African countries, geopolitical instability that precludes representative sampling, variations in internet connectively geographically, ethical considerations particularly when recruiting individuals with limited literary, confounding of research outcomes with traditional healing preferences. Finally, potential bias against publishing African physical therapy research in international physical therapy journals needs to be addressed.
Conclusion(s): Commensurate with their economic development,African countries are in urgent need of quality physical therapy research particularly in the face of the epidemic of lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases. Reflections on the state-of-the-art knowledge and our experiences regarding considerable opportunity for such research, both original and replication-extension studies, and unique research methodological considerations, may be useful to other research teams, and to the international community regarding its professional value.
Implications: This preliminary exploration has highlighted caveats and opportunities regarding developing and conducting research within the African context that is not only of high quality but publication worthy. This information may be useful to other African research teams to minimize the challenges and maximize the opportunities of the physical therapy research potential in Africa.
Funding acknowledgements: This is a self-funded resaerch.
Topic: Research methodology & knowledge translation
Ethics approval: Ethics approval was not required for this project.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
