Physiotherapy students’ mental health assessment

Introduction: Educational environment has a serious impact on students’ mental health. Few data are available on mental health of Physiotherapy students. Aim: The purpose of this study was to assess the mental heath of students in a tertiary Physiotherapy Department during the 3rd years of studies. Material and methods: 80 males and females physiotherapy students of the 5th and 6th semester of a tertiary Physiotherapy Department filled in the GHQ-28 questionnaire. Comparisons between groups were performed using the non parametric Mann-Whitney-U test at significance level of p=0.05. Results: Physiotherapy students’ mean age was 21.77±2.42 years old. The majority of the sample were women (47 participants, 58.7%). 50% of students had a total GHQ -28 score >5, indicating high levels of distress, with anxiety and insomnia being major problems. No statistically significant differences were traced between men and women, although women had a higher total score in comparison with men (median values: 5 vs 3 respectively). Conclusions: Physiotherapy students’ mental health and especially female physiotherapy students’ mental health appears substantially burdened. Anxiety and insomnia are major problem for students of Physiotherapy.