Specialty preferences of final year students studying physical therapy in Peshawar

Introduction: Choosing a specialty after graduation plays an important role in the life of a student. However, little is known about students' preferences about selection of specialties in physical therapy students in developing countries. This study aimed to find out specialties' preferences and factors that influence students' choices of selection any specialty in physical therapy students studying in final year. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on students of physical therapy institutes located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study was carried out from November 2018 to April 2019. Data was collected from final year students only. All students who were eligible, were included for this survey and a total of 185 students participated in this survey. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and questionnaires were distributed amongst them. The data collection tool used for this study was a semi-structured questionnaire. SPSS version 22 was used for data analysis. The measure of frequencies was obtained for variables and chi-square test was applied to measure the association between variables. Results: A total of 185 students, 101 (54.6%) female and 84 (45.4%) male with a mean age of 23.44 ± 1.54 years participated in this study. Among all the participants, 145 (78.3%) intended to specialize in the future. The most preferred specialty amongst these participants was Musculoskeletal Physical Therapy (n=80,43.2%). The least chosen specialty was Geriatrics Physical Therapy (n=2, 1.1%). Among male participants no one selected Gynecological Physical Therapy as specialty. Prestige within the profession was considered the most important factor for specialty preference (n=118, 81.4%). Conclusion: Musculoskeletal Physical Therapy remained preferred choice of specialty amongst students of final year studying Doctor of Physical Therapy in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The most important reported factor effecting specialty preferences amongst physical therapy students is prestige within the profession.