Parent participation in paediatric physiotherapy home programmes

Many studies attest to low levels of compliance behaviour by receivers of health care instructions. The present study investigated this problem in the context of physiotherapy. A questionnaire on parent participation was administered to 93 English-speaking mothers of young children receiving physiotherapy at eight Sydney hospitals or centres. The primary objective was to examine parents' perceptions of their compliance behaviour, frequency of execution in relation to family size or passing time, expectations of a programme, and importance attributed to the programme. It was found that mothers regarded home treatment programmes as substantially valuable, and not only devoted 2 hours each day to execution but continued to do this over many years, in spite of problems. One may conclude that English-speaking mothers who elect to keep their child in a physiotherapy programme in metropolitan Sydney appear eager to participate in the programme and cooperate with the physiotherapist.