Muhammad Ashfaq, Arshad Nawaz Malik.
Trends among the physical therapists about the use of functional status assessment tools: a cross sectional survey.
Int J Rehab Sci Jan ;01(01):20-4.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the current trends in functional status and activity level assessment in physical therapy clinical practice, to evaluate the extent of the use of standardized functional status and activity level assessment tools among Pakistani physical therapists, and to assess the need for the development of such tools in the Local National Language. Methods: The cross sectional survey was designed to conduct the study. Three hundred physical therapists were included in the study from all over Pakistan. Data for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire from the sample by means of purposive sampling. Results: The results describe that only a few (10.9%) physical therapists use some standard tools for functional status and activity level assessment, the majority (51.4%) of Physical therapists use general observation for functional assessment, while the remaining (37.7 %) neither use any tool nor general observation for functional status and activity level assessment. Physical therapists( 89.1%) who currently are not using functional assessment tools/general observation showed their interest to use such assessment tools in future and 57.5% of them say that they need training for this. 95.4% respondents are definitely or agree somewhat for the need of functional assessment tool in the local language while 48.4% and 41.8% respectively definitely agree and agree somewhat for the need of functional status and activity level assessment training in profession entry level courses. Conclusion: It is concluded that many physical therapists recognize the importance of functional status and activity level assessment but majority of them do not use any standard tools or measures for this purpose. There is obvious need to enhance the use of standard tools for which training and development of such tools in local languages with due considerations for socio-economic and cultural factors is also required.

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