Purpose

The study was aimed at determining the involvement of physiotherapy practitioners in Physical activities

Relevance

This study is of great relevance to the practice of Physiotherapy because this is one group in the medical profession who are experts in restoring movement potential. Once physiotherapists are able to manage their physical activities effortlessly, they will be well able to manage the clientele adequately with less stress while enjoying their work.

Participants / subjects

32 Physiotherapy practitioners who were available at the time of data collection at UTH, ZIOH and LMGH with working experience of not less than 1 year both male and female, of age ranging from 22 to 65 years took part in this study. It was all inclusive study. Non-probability sampling was employed using convenience and purposive methods of sampling.

Methods

Non-interventional quantitative study. Data was collected using a self administered questionnaire format as the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. A pilot study was done initially to assess the feasibility of the data collection tool at 2 randomly selected Health centers.

Analysis

Statical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.1

Result

Physiotherapy practitioners don’t take an active role in planned exercises as 50% of the respondents who didn’t engage in exercises believed that their work was enough to exercises. Parenting and gender reduced the level of physical activity involvement because 56% females engaged in nil exercise compared to 28.6% males.   It was also established that respondents put in very little effort in attaining the expected physical activity 38% of the respondents could not account for time spent sitting; another 31% spent between 1 and 4 hours of sitting; while the other 31% spent more than 4 hours of sitting on a regular day.

Conclusion

The findings where, that Physiotherapy practitioners at the selected hospitals in Lusaka know the importance of physical activities towards promotion of physically active lifestyles, but only 50% made efforts to participate in physical exercises. 50% of the respondents that did not participate in physical activities gave excuses of lack of time and so did not see the need of engaging in more physical activities other than their routine work which they felt was enough. Therefore the researcher concluded that the altitude of physiotherapists towards physical activities is poor.

Implications

The implication of inactive therapists makes it difficult for the clientele to adhere to the exercise prescription, as them being movement champions of movement should also walk the talk. And is costing institutions lot on human resource as their in an increase to sick leave caused by stress related complications like back or neck.

Key words

• Physical
• Activity
• Lifestyle

This research was done on a small scale because it was self sponsored.

Permission to conduct the study was sought from the University of Zambia Research Ethics Committee, and it was approved.