Attitude and Anxiety of Master of Physiotherapy Students towards Research - An Observational Study

Background: Physiotherapy research promotes optimum care for patients through evidence-based physiotherapy practice. Students' attitude towards research motivates them to engage in research, develop research skills and apply research findings in clinical settings to promote positive patients outcome. Aim: The aim of this study is to analyse the attitudes and anxiety of Master of Physiotherapy students towards research component. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out with purposively selected students (n=100) from Physiotherapy colleges in Ahmedabad. With informed voluntary consent, data on students' attitude and anxiety toward research were collected using Revised-Attitudes toward Research (R-ATR) scale which was devised by Elena T. Papanastasiou in 2005. R-ATR consists of 13 items measured on a 7- point Likert scale. A value of 1 indicates a response of 'strongly disagree' and a value of 7 corresponds to 'strongly agree'. Analyses were performed using SPSS version 20. Results: Most of the participants 'strongly agree' (5.52) that research is useful for the career, 'very high' (5.27) Positive attitude towards research and 'very high' (4.78) anxiety towards research. Conclusion: Although many of the students have a favorable attitude towards the research and acknowledge its usefulness and benefit to Physiotherapy profession, many of them perceived their research course as stressful and have anxiety towards the research.