Impact of SARS-COV-2 Outbreak and COVID-19 Lockdowns on Education and Mental Health of Physiotherapy Students in France: A National Multicenter Cross-sectional and Observational Survey Study

 France had to implement strict lock-down measures in March and November 2020 to deal with the SARS‑CoV-2 epidemic. These isolation measures particularly affect the mental health of students.

 A national cross-sectional survey, collecting demographic and mental health of French physiotherapy students was conducted.

 2678 physiotherapy students throughout 35 French physiotherapy school.

 The aim was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on experience, education, perceptions of physiotherapy profession and professional project of the French physiotherapist students.

The severity of symptoms of depression, anxiety and insomnia, was assessed by the French version of the PHQ-9, the GAD-7 and the ISI, respectively. We performed a multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors associated with mental health disorders.

In this survey, among the physiotherapy students asked to participate, we obtained 2678 full answers for a number need to threat fixed to 1,584 respondents. Responders were equally distributed according to their position in their public and private school. Unsurprisingly, a very large proportion of students (84%) consider that the crisis has had a negative impact on the quality of their education. More surprisingly, 26% of the respondents report an increased fear concerning their future career and 30% think that the crisis has put into question their choice of professional orientation in physiotherapy.

COVID-19 period affects severely experience, education, perceptions of physiotherapy profession and professional project of the French physiotherapist students. This is particularly true for students at the end of their studies.