PhD Scientific Days 2024

Poster Session C - Mental Health Sciences 1.

Survey of athletes' long-term satisfaction with online physiotherapy

Text of the abstract

Introduction The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has posed new challenges for sports health professionals. In Hungary, the National Institute of Sports Health made extensive use of telemedicine methods during the outbreak of Covid-19. During the first wave of the pandemic, physical therapy treatments were carried out using online therapy. Following the outbreak, after a positive long-term experience with online physiotherapy, we decided to continue using it as part of our daily care.
Methods: Our survey was conducted through an online questionnaire. Our study was approved by the Scientific and Research Ethics Committee of the Health Science Council (BM/15428-1/2023). The questionnaire took 6 months to complete, between June and December 2022. Our online questionnaire was sent to athletes who had participated in an online physiotherapy session during the COVID-19 epidemic and the time between the completion of the questionnaire and the last physiotherapy session was 1 year. Completion was voluntary and anonymous, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The questionnaire consisted of 10 closed questions measuring patients' satisfaction with online therapy. Survey respondents were asked to indicate their answers to the questions on a Likert scale (,,0" - not at all satisfied, ,,5" completely satisfied). The data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics.
Results: Our questionnaire was sent to 250 athletes and 166 athletes replied. The majority of respondents were female, with an average age of 38.1 years. 37.7% of the survey respondents had participated in a spinal gymnastics programme. Based on the responses received, we found that 85% of the respondents were still fully satisfied with the method (Likert scale of 5) 1 year after using the online physiotherapy and would participate in online therapy in the future.
Discussion: Based on the experience of the last two years, we believe that online physiotherapy can provide an excellent solution to the problems of time and geographical distance in sports rehabilitation. It is important to note that the use of online physiotherapy should take into account all factors that may affect its effectiveness (e.g. age, diagnosis, gender, etc.). We believe that a professionally developed complex method can help our athletes to prepare successfully and return to sport as soon as possible.