U. Jasper1, O. Akinrolie2, C. Ishaku3, N. Mgbemena4
1University of Adelaide/The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, Australia, 2Applied Health Sciences, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, 3College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Department of Physiotherapy, Maiduguri, Nigeria, 4James Cook University, Department of Physiotherapy, Queensland, Australia
Background: The world population is ageing, with associated negative consequences. The relevance of health professionals such as physiotherapists involved in managing the physical consequences of global ageing necessitates in-depth knowledge and attitude towards older people. Poor knowledge and bias towards older people can negatively affect physiotherapists’ delivery of care to this population. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore knowledge and bias towards older people among Nigerian physiotherapists.
Purpose: To evaluate the knowledge and bias of Nigerian physiotherapists on ageing and older people.
Methods: Based on a cross-sectional study design, we utilised a sample of convenience to recruit physiotherapists across Nigeria. We collected data at conferences and mailed the questionnaires to major tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. We utilised a 3-part questionnaire to explore the study aim. Part A of the questionnaire requested sociodemographic information including age, educational status, and years of professional practice. Part B explored preferred age group to work with, the experience of caring for older people, relationship with older adults, geriatrics education, and satisfaction with education. Part C was the Palmore’s Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ), which explored knowledge of ageing and bias towards older people. Certain questions in the FAQ were modified to reflect the local setting. We conducted a validity and reliability check on the questionnaire using test-retest with 10 physiotherapists before the main data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, T-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and linear regression.
Results: Out of 204 physiotherapists invited, 186 agreed to participate. The age of participants ranged from 24 to 58 years, with a mean(SD) age of 35.7(7.5). The majority were males (72.5%), 64.8% have a Bachelor’s degree, with an average year of experience of 8.9(7.6), ranging from one to 35 years. Most (97.8%) had treated older people previously but only 47.3% were satisfied with their experience working with older people. The mean knowledge score was 12.4(2.8), which revealed poor knowledge towards ageing and older adults among Nigerian physiotherapists. Test-retest revealed a fair to excellent Intra-class correlation (ICC) of 0.78 (0.64-0.89). Physiotherapists who were satisfied caring for older people and regularly cared for older people had better knowledge of ageing (p<0.05). Linear regression revealed that satisfaction with caring for older people (R2=10.1; p<0.05) and often interacting with older people (R2=14.4; p<0.05) were significant predictors of knowledge of ageing or bias. While Nigerian physiotherapists had good scores on the pro-aged bias subscale, sub-group analysis of bias items revealed poor knowledge and nuanced beliefs that may indicate bias towards older people.
Conclusion(s): Nigerian physiotherapists have poor knowledge of ageing. While findings indicate a positive bias towards older people, there is prevailing poor knowledge on certain aspects of ageing that may affect physiotherapists’ interaction with older people. Findings revealed the importance of exposing physiotherapists to work with older people. Further studies may explore the reasons for poor satisfaction of working with older people among physiotherapists.
Implications: There is a need to improve knowledge of ageing and older people among Nigerian physiotherapists, to eliminate misconceptions and enhance care delivery for older people.
Funding, acknowledgements: None
Keywords: Ageing, Attitude, Health professionals
Topic: Older people
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: University of Maiduguri
Committee: University of Maiduguri Ethical Committee
Reason: Following questionnaire review, ethical committee decided the study was a "low risk" study and advised to proceed
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
