Purpose of Study: In the past few years research work has been conducted on the attitude of health professionals towards the disabled persons. Unfortunately not much literature is available regarding the personal and professional attitude of allied health professional students towards the subject. The objective of the study was to observe the response of the final year physiotherapy students in Rawalpindi & Islamabad regarding their attitudes towards disabled persons.
Methodology: A cross sectional survey was conducted, using purposive sampling among the students of final year in different colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The students comprised of 82 include 62 females and 20 males, age ranged from 20 to 25 (with a mean of 22.5) years. All the participants were almost four weeks from graduation. Attitude towards Disabled Person (ATDP) Scale (A and B) forms were filled by participants.
Results: Mean personal score Attitude towards Disabled Person (ATDP-A) was 15.45 with a standard deviation of 10.29. Analysis of professional Attitude towards Disabled Person (ATDP-B) scores revealed a mean of 8.15 with a standard deviation of 12.21 (p= 0.0001, p < 0.05). So the alternative hypothesis is accepted stating that there is a difference in the personal and professional attitude of medical students toward disabled persons.
Conclusion: It was, therefore, concluded that the mean personal ATDP-A score did differ significantly from the mean professional ATDP-B score showing that students of final year have a more positive personal attitude towards disability as compared to it professionally.
Key words: Students, disabled persons, personal attitude, professional attitude.
|
