Awareness about the necessity of vestibular rehabilitation education in Korean physical therapists

Abstract

Vestibular rehabilitation (VR) improves dizziness and vertigo, postural control, and quality of life. It is a beneficial and safe intervention for pa-tients with peripheral vestibular disease. Physical therapists play an im-portant role in treating them, but Korean physical therapists have little experience in VR or treating peripheral vestibular disease. Furthermore, there are few studies on the current status of Korean physical thera-pists regarding VR. Therefore, we aimed to identify the awareness and current status of Korean physical therapists regarding VR and to dis-cuss the necessity of VR education. The data were obtained from an online survey conducted among 483 licensed physical therapists. In to-tal, 393 questionnaires were analyzed, after excluding 90 questionnaires (18.6%) with poor answers. Most physical therapists had no VR educa-tion (75.6%) and had a high positive response for the necessity of VR education (68.2%) and intention to receive VR education (63.9%). There was a significant difference in clinical experience and intention to re-ceive VR education (P<0.05) with respect to presence or absence of VR education. For the necessity of VR education, there was a statisti-cally significant difference in academic background, institutional type, and intention to receive VR education (P<0.05). In conclusion, many physical therapists in Korea are very interested in VR education, and various factors have highlighted the need for VR education. Therefore, professional education for VR and the cooperation and attention of re-lated medical staff are urgently required.