ABSTRACT
Objective: To understand what were the coping strategies adopted by Brazilian physiotherapists in the face of the pandemic over two periods (2020 and 2021), and to analyze the barriers and facilitators they identified. Method: This is a quantitative observational study in two sections (cross-sectional and longitudinal), carried out through an online questionnaire, in which 304 physical therapists participated in the research. The instruments applied were a sociodemographic and work form and the Brief COPE questionnaire. For statistics the following analyses were used: frequency, mean, median, interquartile range, and standard deviation;the Mann Whitney U test;the Kruskal-Wallis test;the Spearman's correlation test;and the Wilcoxon test. Barriers and facilitators were organized in the form of a word cloud (Word Cloud Art Creator). Results: The most frequently used coping strategies were acceptance, planning, and active coping in the two periods of analysis. Most participants pointed out that the fear of infecting their family or friends was the main barrier, and family support was the main facilitator. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the family served as a facilitator for coping, but also as a barrier due to the concern of possible infection of family members. The coping strategies used by physical therapists were considered satisfactory and adaptive.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: To evaluate functional state, it is fundamental to have simple instruments that allow for monitoring the course of symptoms and the commitment of the functional status that adult COVID-19 survivors may present. This study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Post COVID-19 Functional Status (PCFS) scale. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional scale validation study was performed. In the content validation 22-health professionals, whom through expert judgment evaluated the scale in the sufficiency, clarity, coherence and relevance categories. In addition, two professionals performed the retest with 20 people who had been infected with COVID-19. In addition, their observations and comments are revealed. The degree of agreement amongst the experts was determined with the Kendall coefficient. For the retest test, the Spearman coefficient was utilized. In all the analyzes, a P value of <.05 was considered. RESULTS: In regards to the content validity, there was agreement between raters only for the relevance category (P=.032). A strong agreement was obtained between two evaluators (Spearman's Rho=.929 for the score). Some of the content terms were adjusted without affecting the general structure of the scale. Of the original 16 items that make up the PCFS scale, none was eliminated. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the PCFS (Chile) was adapted to the cultural context of the country, shows good psychometric characteristics in terms of reliability.