Assess the awareness of COVID-19 among the physiotherapists working in different hospitals of Sindh, Pakistan: A cross sectional survey

Background: To assess the awareness of Covid-19 among the Physiotherapists of Sindh, Pakistan, in order to check the level of knowledge present regarding the pandemics among the working physiotherapist of Pakistan. Material & Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in different hospitals of Sindh, Pakistan from June to July 2020. A self-constructed questionnaire by Pursuing the clinical and community administration of COVID-19 given by the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China was used among the 343 Physiotherapists and SPSS version 23 was used to analyze the data. Results: The majority (n=207, 60.3%) were male, having age between 33 and above years (n=227, 66.2%) and (n=304, 88.6%) were married. In educational status (n=230, 67.1%) were postgraduate and (n=304, 88.6%) belongs to urban area. During the assessment of awareness towards COVID-19 results showed that majority (n=321, 93.6%) were aware of COVID-19. Conclusion: This Study concluded that the physiotherapists who are working in different hospitals of Sindh, Pakistan are well aware of COVID-19.The awareness can be due to their self-interest in infection preventive measure and quality of education being provided by their respective institutions. Research Article Assess the awareness of COVID-19 among the physiotherapists working in different hospitals of Sindh, Pakistan: A cross sectional survey Aadil Ameer Ali1*, Sana Naqi2, Muhammad Khan Bugti3, Muhammad Rafeeq4, Muhammad Ishaque M.R5, Taufi q Ahmad5, Amjad Hussain5, Shabana Yasmeen6 and Hafsa Imtiaz Khokhar5 1Institute of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Sciences, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana, Pakistan 2Institute of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Sciences, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Pakistan 3Department of Physiotherapy, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Trauma, Karachi, Pakistan 4Department of Statistics, University of Sindh, Pakistan 5Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan 6Agriculture Research Institute, Mastung, Pakistan Received: 26 February, 2021 Accepted: 06 March, 2021 Published: 08 March, 2021 *Corresponding author: Dr. Aadil Ameer Ali, Lecturer Physiotherapy, Institute of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Sciences, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana, Pakistan, Tel: +923002929464; E-mail:


Introduction
At the end of 2019, thousands of people suddenly started visiting the hospitals of Wuhan, China with the serious symptoms of fever, chest congestion, cough, muscular pain, the female patients presented with the additional symptom of tastelessness, furthermore the periodic gastrointestinal symptoms, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), viral pneumonia with unknown cause and even the death was reported in some severe cases [1][2][3][4][5]. Whereas most of the patients were found asymptomatic as well [4,6]. During the onset of this pandemic situation no one is able to identify the disease but later on this was classifi ed as Novel Corona virus frequently abbreviated as "COVID-19, found with zoonotic origination from the food market of china [7]. Older people are more prone to get infected from covid-19, people with diabetes, hypertension or have any other pathology have more chances to get infected adversely from Covid-19 due to compromised immunity [8,9]. As the Covid-19 is communicable and yet treatment is not discovered the only way to keep ourselves safe is prevention [10]. The Covid-19 is airborne and mostly spreading through the sneezing of infected person or with the close contact of contaminated surfaces [11,12]. Globally the mortality rate ranges between 2.9% to 20%, whereas in Pakistan it was observed at a peak of 20% [13]. In Pakistan majority of patients were found asymptomatic as well [14].
Among all the health care providers the physiotherapists are important health care individuals therefore the assessment of physiotherapist who are working in different hospital is mandatory, regarding the Covid-19 is important in order to reduce the spread of this pandemic [5,15].

Study design, settings, and duration
A cross sectional survey was carried out in the month of June & July 2020 and data was collected from physiotherapist who are working in different hospital of Sindh, Pakistan.

Sampling
Convenient Non-Probability Sampling Technique was applied among 343 physiotherapists. The sample size was calculated by using Raosoft sample size calculator. Those physiotherapist were included who were working and volunteered themselves to participate in the study. While, the physiotherapists were working out of Sindh province and unwilling to sign consent form were excluded.

Data collection tool
The questionnaire consisted of two parts: fi rst is consist on the demographics which includes age, gender, matrimonial status, educational level and locality. Second one consist of 10 awareness items by Pursuing the recommendations for clinical and community administration of COVID-19 given by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China [10,16].

Data collection procedure
The data was collected online through e-questionnaire, because in undefi ned period of lockdown it was not possible to conduct a sampling study based on hardcopy questionnaire.
The link of e-questionnaire was send to the Physiotherapists by using their e-mails and by using different social media applications.

Data analysis procedure
Data was evaluated and presented in frequency and percentages for categorical variables, mean and standard deviations were presented for continuous variables. 23rd version of Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used.

Ethical consideration
The approval was received from the ethical inspection committee of Faculty of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan. Informed consent was taken from participants containing that their participation is voluntary, their information will be kept confi dential and they can leave the study anytime, after that the proforma was fi lled for data collection.

Demographic characterstics
Demographic Characterstics are described in table 1, which states that the majority (n=227, 66.2%) belongs to age group of 33 and above years and (n=207, 60.3%) were male. After checking the marital status we found that majority (n=304, 88.6%) were married. In education (n=230, 67.1%) were postgraduate and (n=304, 88.6%) were permanent residents of urban areas of Sindh province (Table 1).

Response to COVID-19 awareness items
Response to COVID-19 Awareness items are described in

Cross tabulation between the demographics and awareness
Cross tabulation between the demographics and awareness is described in table 4, which states that the Majority (n=222) were aware and belongs to age group of 34 and above years, and (n=192) were male. After checking their marital status we found that (n=286) were married. In educational status the majority (n=230) were post-graduate students and (n=286) were related to urban areas of Sindh province.

Discussion
The current study disclosed that the majority (96.    session it's not possible to maintain more than 2 feet's of interpersonal distance between the therapist and a patient.
That trainings will educate the physiotherapists that how they can reduce the communication of airborne diseases in such a narrow distance [19,20].
In addition to this it's necessary for post Covid-19 patients to attend the physiotherapy out door patients department in order to regain their strength specially the respiratory strength because the covid-19 mostly affects the respiratory health of patients [17,21]. whereas most of the physiotherapy out door patients department are being visited by older individuals, who are more prone to get infected by infectious diseases due to suppressed immunity [22], so its duty of physiotherapist to bring most of their knowledge into practice to avoid the unnecessary communication of infectious diseases specially in pandemics. Although its obligation of physiotherapist being a health care provider they should implement their enhanced knowledge of handling preventive measure in their daily practice in order to protect their patients from such type of diseases and maintain their quality of life of older patients wisely in the narrow space between physiotherapist and patient during the treatment sessions [12,23,24].
The study revealed that the majority of physiotherapist were found aware of Covid-19 pandemic that can be due to the huge interest of physiotherapist in their primary education which is being delivered to them by the worthy institutions of Pakistan [15,18,25,26].

Conclusion
The study fi nalized that the majority of physiotherapist were aware of Covid-19 that highlights that the physiotherapist of Sindh, Pakistan have sound knowledge regarding the preventive measure of disease outbreak and they were using their knowledge in order to make their practice as good as their knowledge is.

Recommendation
The awareness regarding Covid-19 should be checked in other health care providers as well, especially in those who served for covid-19 patients.