Physiotherapy and chronic diseases

The demographic changes, induced by the increasing age and a sedentary lifestyle of the population, will lead to an increase of chronic, multimorbid and complex diseases and will change the demands on the health care system.

To be able to act early on the demands of this demographic changes it is important to know in detail the actual health care structures in which physiotherapists are working in Switzerland.

The objective of the project “Health care structures for chronic diseases in physiotherapy; how are physiotherapists prepared to take care of the increasing number of patients? » is to gain insight to the following topics: a) The actual population of physiotherapists working in Switzerland (socio-demographic data, work situation and educational level in physiotherapy) b) actual health care structures with physical therapist participations in the health care of patients with chronic, progressive diseases.

According to the findings of our investigation we hope to detect gaps in the health care of patients with chronic, progressive diseases and therefore to be able to anticipate how to ensure long-term and appropriate physiotherapy for patients with chronic diseases in the future.

The leading house of this project is the University of Applied Sciences in Zürich (ZHAW).