The effect of covid-19 pandemic on disabled children receiving physiotherapy

The Covid-19, which emerged due to the SARS-CoV-2 transmission, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, and many health services were stopped or restricted. Physiotherapy services all over the world have been disrupted due to Covid-19. Furthermore, in Turkey, many families have taken a break from physiotherapy or considered different physiotherapy alternatives such as home-based physiotherapy and tele-rehabilitation. In this study, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on disabled children whose receiving physiotherapy were investigated. A total of 103 children, 42 girls and 61 boys, aged 2-18 (mean 6±4.20) were included in the study. The "Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Disabled Children Receiving Physiotherapy Questionnaire" is used, which was created by researcher to obtain the demographic information of the cases included in the study and their parents who continue the physiotherapy process at home. Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used for the depression and anxiety levels of the parents. It was observed that 60.2% of the cases continued in the therapy center without ever stopping physiotherapy after Covid-19 pandemic started, and 39.8% of cases did not continued. While 46.8% of the children who received physiotherapy after the start of Covid-19 pandemic, progress was observed in the gross motor level, while 24.4% of the children made progress in the gross motor level who did not receive physiotherapy in a center after the pandemic started. Only 13 (12.6%) cases received physiotherapy at home by a physiotherapist and only 1 (1%) case received tele-rehabilitation service. The Beck Anxiety Inventory mean of mothers participating in the study was 8.08, while it was 2.57 for fathers. Again, while the Beck Depression Inventory mean of the mothers participating in the study was 10.54, the mean of the fathers was 4.36. Improvement in gross motor level was observed in the children of parents with minimal anxiety (28.1%) and again, the children of parents with minimal depression (16.5%) showed improvement in gross motor level. Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruption of health services all over the world and in Turkey. Many parents have taken their children to the physiotherapy center during the pandemic, and those who could not, continued physiotherapy with home exercise programs. More studies are needed to search the different alternative ways of physiotherapy, which is traditionally continued in the clinical setting, is not interrupted at such times.