Motivation and Awareness of Female Physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia toward Women Health Physiotherapy

Background: Pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) are a group of common conditions that create a great distress to the lives of many female patients. The role of women health physiotherapy (WHPT) in managing PFDs is crucial. Scarce data in the literature describe the awareness, attitude, and practice of WHPT among female physiotherapists and to the best of our knowledge, none are reported in Saudi Arabia. This paper hypothesizes that female physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia are less motivated to practice WHPT and that being less motivated have led to acquiring a lower level of awareness to the specialty. Additionally, it aims to explore the beliefs of female physiotherapists toward WHPT.

Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed among female physiotherapists working in Saudi Arabia. Participants were asked to identify other colleagues to include in the sample. Reliability of the questionnaire was tested using a pilot study.

Results: The majority of respondents [75.9%] are specialists and 69.2% reported years of experience ranging from 1 to 5. Around 46.9% of respondents were motivated to practice WHPT and 82.1% agreed that physiotherapy is important in treating PFDs. Additionally, Respondents who were motivated to practice WHPT displayed a significantly higher level of awareness to the specialty and understood the importance of pelvic floor rehabilitation (PFR) as an intervention for PFDs.

Conclusions: There is adequate level of awareness of female physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia to WHPT and a great motivation to practice the specialty. The study highlighted the need to organize various educational programs and workshops that focus on WHPT and PFR.