International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 10, Issue 3, March-2019 646 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 2019 http://www.ijser.org Physiotherapy Awareness Among Community Health workers-A Survey Dr. Fouzia Hussain, Dr. Hajra Ameer Shaikh, Dr. Muhammad Saad Khan, Dr. Saffa Ibrahim Abstract— Objective: There are many researches on awareness of physiotherapy among medical practitioners but fewer researches on community health workers (CHWs). By this survey knew about awareness in CHWs which play important role in gynecological and pediatrics problems. The aim of the study to assessed awareness of physiotherapy among community health workers. Materials and Methods: The design of the study was cross- sectional and non-probability convenience sampling was used for data collection. Sample size consisted of 150 participants from CHWs in Karachi. Study was conducted from August 2017 to November 2017. CHWs include community health aids, country specific occupational title such as community health officers, community health education workers and lady health visitors. The exclusion criteria include Physiotherapists, Doctors, Nurses and Tech- nicians. Respondents have filled questionnaires, each answer has been coded and frequency was analyzed. Descriptive statistics was used and data analyze on IBM SPSS version 22.0. Results: The mean age of participants was 31.54 years. In our study classification of gender 88% were female and 12% were male. 52% of participants were aware about physiotherapy and 48% were not. Conclusion: There is only some awareness about physiother- apy among CHWs. There is mostly no source of awareness to provide information related to physiotherapy. Index Terms— Physiotherapy, Awareness, Community health workers. ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION hysiotherapy has been defined as a forceful health care profession with well-known theoretical and extensive clin- ical application in the presentation, development and restora- tion of optimal physical functions."[1]"Physiotherapy is one of the oldest profession in health care practiced since 460 BC by great physicians such as Hippocrates and Galen. [2] Rehabili- tation practitioners i.e. physiotherapists are involved in as- sessment, diagnosis, evaluation management and prevention of the dysfunction and impairments of movement in people of all ages and within a wide-range of contexts. It is the role of physiotherapists to help disabled people to maximize their potential capabilities of achieving function and independence of activities of daily living. The better is the survival of profes- sion the more accessibility a physiotherapist is to patients. Physiotherapists are the top of the pyramid of the health care practitioners . [1] Physiotherapists are professionals and have knowledge, au- tonomy, authority, education, responsibility, accountability and ethics. [3] Physiotherapists want to used their knowledge, skills and attributes to benefit people for example elite ath- letes, older people, patients with developmental or acquired conditions. [4] Physical therapy is given to individuals who have impairments or improve overall fitness to reduce risk of injury. [5] The physiotherapists facilitate to community for optimum functional independence, health and well-being. Health and well-being of the community is achieved by specialized man- ual techniques, electrotherapeutic modalities, exercises, advice and counseling to patients and caregivers, provision of adap- tive devices and mobility aids, education and training. [6] Physiotherapy is shared with medical practitioner and based on scientific philosophy. Physiotherapy requires specializa- tions in various fields for the benefit of the society and physio- therapy as a profession is an occupation. Physiotherapy has reached higher position because of the education system, re- search and widespread practice. [1] In all ages of group physiotherapists are health care profes- sionals who maintain, restore and improve movement, activity and health for individuals in all ages groups. In some conti- nents, they are addressed as Physiotherapist and in other con- tinents as physical Therapists. [7] Even in very high, medium and low developing areas there is lack of complete under- standing of physiotherapy profession. There is negative per- ception about physiotherapy profession that physiotherapy profession mostly deals with exercise and massage. Physio- therapy as a key component in health care system. In health promotion and prevention of diseases the role of physiothera- py is still growing. [4] Awareness about physiotherapy is nec- essary not only for assessment, diagnosis, evaluation, man- agement and prevention but also for making one's future ca- reer choice. When making one's future career choice infor- mation about various occupations and profession is an im- portant factor. [8] Pakistan is one of the world's most populat- ed country in which the morbidity and mortality rates are very high mainly due to child marriage, lack of education, especial- ly among the lower socioeconomic groups. Many researchers have found community rehabilitation treatment to be more effective in treating community than institutionalized treat- ment. One major advantage of community based rehabilita- tion programs (CBR) culture sensitivities are taken into con- sideration over institutionalized rehabilitation. Physiothera- pists undergo rigorous training in treatment strategies to help the community, especially persons with structural and func- tional disabilities. Physiotherapistsare essential to CBR. [9] Physiotherapy encompasses emotional, social, physical and P IJSER