Knowledge and current practices of physiotherapists on the physical activity and exercise in the rehabilitation of children with epileptic seizures

Yakasai, AM; Damazumi, MS; Zakari, UU; Usman, IL; Abdullahi, A; Shehu, UT

Abstract

Background: Physiotherapists play a key role in the rehabilitation of children with epileptic seizures. Regular physical exercise generates psychological and physiological benefits for people with epilepsy.
Design: This study was a cross-sectional design.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and current practices of Physiotherapists on the physical activity and exercise in the rehabilitation of children with epileptic seizures in Nigeria.
Methods: Physiotherapists with minimum Bachelor’s degrees were invited to participate in the study using an electronic questionnaire. The subjects (N=117) answered a questionnaire comprising 33 simple closed-ended questions with three domain personal information, knowledge, and current practices.
Results; Out of the 117 physiotherapists, 77.7% (n=91) had postgraduate degrees, 16.2% (n=19) had bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy, and only 5.9% (n=7) had doctor’s degree in physiotherapy (DPT). The results also indicated that 79.5% (n=93) of physiotherapists had sufficient knowledge about epilepsy, and 86.3% (n=101) of physiotherapists were using current skills/physical activity to rehabilitate children with epileptic seizures.
Conclusions; It was concluded that physiotherapists had sufficient knowledge about epilepsy and were using current skills/physical activity in the rehabilitation of children with epileptic seizures.
Keywords; Physiotherapists knowledge; Exercises; Physical activity; Epileptic seizure; Children

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 22, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 10, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2021
• Journal: Epilepsy & Behavior
• Print ISSN: 1525-5050
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 104
• Issue: A
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.106891
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.106891
• Related Public URLs: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/epilepsy-and-behavior