Background: Stroke is a major cause of disability in the world and its long term effects require good adherence to treatment protocols of physiotherapy. This will ensure optimal rehabilitation and reduce the burden of care in the society and the health service. Superficial analysis of existing data from the Physiotherapy Department of Mthatha General Hospital (MGH) revealed that there was poor attendance of outpatient physiotherapy by patients discharged from MGH with stroke and this had negative effects on outcomes and health care costs. Aim: To identify factors that influence poor attendance for outpatient physiotherapy by patients discharged from MGH with a stroke. Methods: Following approval from the Research Ethics Committee to conduct the study, an observational descriptive study design was used. The study population was 139 patients with stroke who attended for physiotherapy in MGH from January 2007 to December 2007. From a sample size of 103 randomly selected patients, 85 patients participated in the study with a response rate of 82%. Data collection was done using structured interviews and SPSS was used for data analysis. Results: The majority (86%) of patients did not attend physiotherapy until discharge from physiotherapy department. The major factors that influenced poor attendance were movement of patients to other areas (36%) and long distance from MGH (29%). Conclusion: The majority of stroke patients who attended for rehabilitation in MGH Physiotherapy Department lived in rural areas which were distant from Mthatha and could not attend physiotherapy at MGH as required by the physiotherapists. Recommendation: Development of a Provincial Rehabilitation Policy to address the unavailability of physiotherapy services at clinics and health care centers and ensure creation and filling of vacant physiotherapy positions at these levels of care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wsu/vital:18424 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Ntamo, Precious Nomatende |
| Publisher | Walter Sisulu University, Faculty of Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MPH |
| Format | 60 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Walter Sisulu University |
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