Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey on Body Posture Among Undergraduate Physiotherapy Students

Abstract

Background: Posture is the alignment or orientation of body segments by maintaining an upright position. The postural deviations associated with change in young people’s behavior have increased. Incorrect posture refers to an irregular state of the body in which the body does not sustain a steady state and tissues and organs function normally in an erect position. Objective: The objectives of this study were to check the knowledge about body posture, attitude towards good and bad posture and practice for correcting the wrong posture to prevent complications in physiotherapy students. Methodology: An observational cross sectional study was conducted among the physiotherapy students from University Institute of Physical Therapy (UIPT), The University of Lahore Chenab Campus; Pakistan. For knowledge section Questionnaire on level of awareness of body use in young people was used, for attitude section a self-structured questionnaire and for practice section (Q-BAPHYP) was used. Data were analyzed by using SPSS (version 21.0). Results: Out of  202 physiotherapy students, 21(10.4%) were males and 181(89.6%) were females. 12.4% students were from 2nd year, 37.1% from 3rd year, 28.2% from 4th year and 22.3% from 5th year. Average age was 21.43 years. Among the total 36(17.8%) student’s had knowledge of good posture, 143(70.8%) often good posture. 168(83.2%) students responded of having a positive attitude towards good posture and only 11(5.4%) always practices good posture in their daily life. There is a positive but a weak correlation between knowledge and attitude (Spearman Correlation value=0.138) Conclusion: It was found that the physiotherapy students had knowledge of good posture and showed a positive attitude towards good posture but they are not well practicing it in their daily routine. Key words: Bad posture, Ergonomics, Good posture, Kinematics, Posture, Scoliosis