A national survey of occupational therapy students' and physiotherapy students' attitudes to disabled people

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the possible influence of curricular and non-curricular activities on the attitudes of occupational therapy and physiotherapy students towards disabled people at the beginning and end of their pre-registration education.

Design: A cross-sectional survey.

Setting: United Kingdom.

Participants: Two thousand two hundred and ninety-nine students.

Main outcome measures: Interaction with Disabled Persons' Scale.

Results: Occupational therapy and physiotherapy programmes attract different types of student. Occupational therapy students' attitudes to disabled people were significantly more positive than those of physiotherapy students at the beginning (P < 0.0001) and end (P < 0.0001) of their respective programmes. Students with disabled family members (P < 0.0001) and informal social contact with disabled people (P < 0.0001) had significantly more positive attitudes than those without such contact, and such students tend to choose occupational therapy as a career. Work experience with disabled people did not significantly influence the attitudes towards disabled people of occupational therapy students at the end of their programme (P = 0.187) but did for all other students. A significantly higher proportion of occupational therapy students undertake extracurricular employment and socialize with disabled people than their physiotherapy counterparts.

Conclusion: Physiotherapy students hold less positive attitudes to disabled people than occupational therapy students at both the beginning and end of their pre-registration education. Physiotherapy educators need to give greater credit for work experience with disabled people and to ensure the provision of appropriate disability training to counteract possible overemphasis on physical impairments in the curricula.