The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Doctor of Physical Therapy Students: A National Survey.

Introduction: Since the lockdown in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably affected all individuals across the world. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived impacts of the pandemic on doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students and if there were any statistically significant differences based on minority status, gender, or class standing.

Review of literature: Literature suggested that DPT students experienced negative impacts of the pandemic on academic success and mental health. However, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the perceived physical, mental, financial, and academic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by physical therapist students nationally.

Subjects: Convenience sampling was used to recruit all students enrolled in physical therapist programs in the United States.

Methods: The research design was a cross-sectional survey administered electronically using the Alchemer survey platform with 12 Likert scale items compiled in the physical, mental, financial, and academic domains. All items were designed to evaluate the perceived impacts of the pandemic on a 5-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Results: A total of 1,230 completed responses were received. The mean responses were 3.45 (SD 1.12), 3.48 (SD 0.92), 2.74 (SD 1.03), and 3.33 (SD 0.93) for the physical, mental, financial, and academic domains, respectively. No significant difference was found based on minority status. A statistically significant difference was found in the mental domain, with female students perceiving a more negative impact by the pandemic. First-year students reported a significantly higher negative impact in the physical domain compared with second-year students. The perceived impact in the academic domain was significantly higher for both first- and second-year students than third-year students.

Conclusions: Developing and promoting access to campus and community resources to address the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to facilitating student success during and after the pandemic.