Physical activity in physiotherapy students: Levels of physical activity and perceived benefits and barriers to exercise.
Diana Kgokong, Romy Parker
PMID 32391443WHAT IT FOUND
Only 37.5% of South African physiotherapy students had high activity levels, though most saw exercise as beneficial.
Students with higher activity had more positive views of exercise. PT educators should discuss students' own activity levels.
Key findings
01Of 296 participating physiotherapy students, 111 (37.5%) had high physical activity and 61 (20.6%) had low physical activity.
02Median Exercise Benefits and Barriers Scale score was 136, indicating generally positive views of exercise.
03Students with high physical activity had significantly higher EBBS scores than those with moderate and low physical activity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 296 of 720 registered students participated, so students who did not take part may differ from those who did. The survey measured activity and exercise beliefs at one time point, so it cannot show which way any association works. Physical activity and benefits/barriers were self-reported, and the paper noted disagreement between activity reported on the demographic questionnaire and the IPAQ. First-year students from one university could not participate, introducing recruitment bias. Results are limited to physiotherapy students at three universities in the Western Cape and may not apply to other settings. The reported direction of agreement for barrier sub-scales conflicts with the item medians shown, making the barrier findings unclear.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing physiotherapy students' physical activity will improve their beliefs about exercise or make them better role models. This was a cross-sectional survey, so it only showed an association between higher activity and more positive exercise views at the same time.