The relationship between body awareness levels and body structure and functions of physiotherapists working in the field of pediatric rehabilitation

Body awareness is a concept that defines one's experiences and signals originating from the body by passing them through mental stages. Due to its physical, emotional and social dimensions, it can also differ between individuals depending on the work they do. The physiotherapist profession is a profession that requires physical and mental strength. The techniques applied by physiotherapists working in the field of pediatric rehabilitation during therapy sessions can exceed the physical and mental stress threshold of physiotherapists and cause difficulties. In this respect, evaluating the physical and mental characteristics of physiotherapists and revealing the relationship between body awareness and body awareness is the key point in defining the precautions to be taken. The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between body awareness levels and body structure and functions of physiotherapists working in the field of pediatric rehabilitation. 100 volunteers between the ages of 23-50 working in the field of pediatric rehabilitation with more than 1 year of field experience were included in the study. Body mass indexes of the participants with the World Health Organization classification, body awareness levels with the Body Awareness Questionnaire, balance status with the functional reach test, trunk flexibility and shortness with flexibility shortness tests, rib cage flexibility with anthropometric circumference measurements, physiotherapists' exposure to strengths Physiotherapists Occupational Injury Emotional status was assessed with the Warwick Mental Well-Being Scale. Data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 22.0 program. In the study, a significant correlation was found between the body awareness levels of physiotherapists working in the field of pediatric rehabilitation and the first three sub-dimensions of body awareness and mental well-being (p<0.05). There was no relationship between other variables and body awareness (p<0.05). In this study, the level of body awareness of pediatric physiotherapists was directly related to their mental well-being, and this result revealed that body awareness was more related to psychosocial functions. The study is important in that it shows that the body awareness levels of physiotherapists working in different fields need to be examined with anthropometric and measurement data.