Perception of quality of life and frequency of anxiety symptoms in Physiotherapy students

Abstract

The present study aimed to assess the perception of quality of life and prevalence of anxiety symptoms in Physiotherapy students at a Higher Education Institution. This is a clinical, cross-sectional, quantitative study. The study was carried out in a private higher education institution in Teresina, Piauí, the data collection was carried out from August to October 2020, with the inclusion criteria for students of the Physiotherapy course duly enrolled in the institution and older than 18 years old. The sample consisted of 84 physiotherapy students, of whom 71.4% are female and 28.6% are male, with a mean age of 22 years ± 3.6 years. When analyzing the quality of life by WHOQOL-BREF, it is observed that in the averages presented, the results are negative and indicate that these academics do not have a good quality of life, especially with regard to the environment, which is related to safety physical and protection, financial resources, health and social care, opportunities for recreation / leisure, which can cause numerous losses such as stress and frustrations in academic life. Regarding the anxiety symptoms analyzed by the Beck Anxiety Inventory, it was found that 82 students have symptoms of anxiety, with a prevalence of 97.6%, and the majority (50%) have mild symptoms. In view of the results, it can be concluded that Physiotherapy students have poor perception of quality of life, as there is also a high prevalence of minimal and mild symptoms of anxiety in these students.