The process of obtaining information about COVID-19 among students of physiotherapy and rehabilitation department

Gunduz D. I., SEÇER E., Secer M.

BMC medical education, cilt.25, sa.1, ss.189, 2025 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 25 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1186/s12909-025-06764-0
  • Dergi Adı: BMC medical education
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Biotechnology Research Abstracts, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Veterinary Science Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.189
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Physical therapy, Coronavirus, Information seeking behaviour
  • Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

BACKGROUND: This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the process of obtaining information about COVID-19 infection among students of the Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation (DPR) by examining the topic of information seeking, information source preference, and factors influencing these preferences. METHODS: A total of 495/645 (76.74%) DPR students participated in the study. The data collection form prepared by the researchers was administered between May-June 2022 using face-to-face interview technique. Students' sociodemographic data (age, biological sex, body mass index) and the main topics they researched about COVID-19, information sources, and factors influencing their choice of sources were recorded. RESULTS: Students often preferred to use internet social media (61.00%) and sources they considered reliable (81.40%) to access basic clinical information about COVID-19 (the routes of transmission = 30.30%, the main symptoms = 26.30%, number of cases = 22.60%). While biological sex (pbiologicalsex) and class level (pclasslevel) influenced the choice of sources (pbiologicalsex=0.011; pclasslevel:0.0001) and the factors determining this choice (pbiologicalsex=0.011-0.022; pclasslevel=0.0001-0.005), topic preferences were only influenced by class level (pbiologicalsex>0.05; pclasslevel = 0.0001-0.022). CONCLUSION: DPR students should be supported with reliable and up-to-date social media-based digital content prepared by experts in the field about physiotherapy practice and with easy access to scientific data, even in the late stages of pandemic processes such as COVID-19, when the need for access to information is high due to their professional role.