Awareness, Belief, Attitude and Utilization of Physiotherapy Services Among Adults of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Borno State

Physiotherapy is an absolute necessity in the health care delivery system which provides treatment to individuals in order to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout a person’s lifespan. Having adequate awareness of physiotherapy in health care delivery may influence the public beliefs and affect utilization of physiotherapy service. This study therefore investigated the general public’s awareness of, belief about, attitude towards and utilization of physiotherapy in Maiduguri, a metropolitan city in Borno state, Nigeria.
A cross sectional survey of 344 randomly selected participants from the general public in selected areas in Maiduguri Metropolitan council. The participants completed a self-administered validated questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation, percentages and frequency to summarize the demographic characteristics and responses of participants. Chi-Square statistics test was used to analyze the association between awareness, belief, attitude and utilization and their demographic characteristics.
Three hundred and forty-four adults with a mean age of 40.46 ± 14.163 participated in this study. Majority of the participants 318 (92.4) had low awareness, a larger portion, 259 (75.3%) had positive belief about physiotherapy, 269 (78.2%) had limited utilization and a bigger percentage 227 (66.0%) had negative attitude towards physiotherapy services.
Awareness of physiotherapy is significantly associated with educational level (p=