Involvement in and Views on Social Responsibility of Gauteng Members of the South African Society of Physiotherapy: A Cross-sectional Survey

How do physiotherapists in Gauteng Province, who are members of the South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP), view social responsibility? A cross-sectional survey was conducted after ethics approval. All 1 098 Gauteng members of the SASP were invited via a third-party e-mail to reach the a priori minimum sample size of 97. The web-based questionnaire was developed from literature, an earlier SASP survey and a position paper of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Five experts validated the instrument. The Likert scale scores indicating agreement with indicators of social responsibility were totalled to form a composite social responsibility score. The chi-square test for independence was used to determine associations between the categorised composite social responsibility score and categorical variables. Mean difference of continuous variables between the categorised core for two groups were tested using the two-sample t-test. All variables with a P-value less than 0.05 were included in the logistic regression analysis to investigate predictors of the necessity of social responsibility. The survey was completed by 163 participants. Of the sample, 96.9% viewed social responsibility as important. Subjects agreed most with "advocating for the health needs of society" (74,2%) and the least with "political activism" (6.1%). Compulsory community service positively influenced 74.6%. Most physiotherapists in the study viewed social responsibility as important and were involved in volunteering. There is scope to broaden the understanding among physiotherapists of what social responsibility entails.