Knowledge, Perception and Willingness to use Telerehabilitation among Caregivers of Paediatric Physiotherapy Patients at Selected Hospitals in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Telerehabilitation has been identified in recent times as a valuable tool for expanding access to rehabilitation services. In telerehabilitation, especially for the paediatric population caregivers have the vital role of assisting the child with technology and exercises. It is therefore important that the caregivers have a good knowledge of telerehabilitation and their role in the process. This study was aimed at determining the knowledge, perception and willingness to use telerehabilitation among caregivers of paediatric physiotherapy patients at the two major public paediatric referral centers in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Materials and methods: A total of 196 caregivers of paediatric physiotherapy patients purposively selected from the University College Hospital and Oni Memorial Children’s Hospital, Ibadan participated in this cross-sectional study. Descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages, mean, and inferential statistics of the chi-square test were used to analyze the data with level of significance set at 0.05.

Results: Results showed that two-thirds of the participants were knowledgeable about what telerehabilitation involves. However, an equal number reported that telerehabilitation increases their anxiety about incorrectly performing therapeutic exercises for their child and places more responsibility on the caregiver. The majority reported that technical and internet problems with sound and image may be a limitation to using telehabilitation even though the majority still had good willingness to use telerehabilitation. Socioeconomic status was identified as a determining factor of both level of knowledge and perception of telerehabilitation.

Conclusion/Recommendations: It was concluded that policies that support the integration of telerehabilitation into the national healthcare system for peadiatric population should be developed and implemented. In addition educational programmes targeted at improving both knowledge and perception of telerehabilitation especially among paediatric caregivers of low socioeconomic status should be designed, implemented and disseminated.