EVALUATION OF AMPUTEE REHABILITATION COURSE CONTENT IN PHYSIOTHERAPY AND REHABILITATION CURRICULUM ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF FUNCTIONING, DISABILITY AND HEALTH (ICF): A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate amputee rehabilitation course content in physiotherapy and rehabilitation curriculum according to International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Methods: Academicians teaching amputee rehabilitation in the Faculty of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation in Türkiye were included in the study. An online survey was distributed to the academicians via email. The survey includes sociodemographic characteristics and 59 ICF categories. These categories were selected by two experts experienced in research fields related to amputee rehabilitation and the ICF, considering the literature on upper and lower extremity amputee rehabilitation. Academicians were asked whether 59 ICF categories were present in the course content, and simply to answer “yes” or “no” to each question. The Cochran’s Q test was used to identify differences in ICF category frequencies, with pairwise McNemar tests and Bonferroni correction applied for multiple comparisons. Results: Seventy-three academicians (43 females, 30 males; mean age: 39.75±10.99 years) responded to the survey. The categories related to sleep functions, high-level cognitive functions, writing, handling stress and other psychological demands most of the categories about domestic life and interpersonal relationship and environmental factors were mentioned significantly less than the other categories in the course content (p<0.001). Conclusion: Interdisciplinary areas such as sleep, high-level cognitive functions, stress management, domestic life, interpersonal relationships, and environmental factors are not sufficiently emphasised in the course content. The amputee rehabilitation course focuses on areas related to physiotherapy. The results revealed that contents related to interdisciplinary fields and collaborative approaches with other disciplines should be integrated into the amputee rehabilitation course.