Awareness, Knowledge, Perceptions, Attitudes and Utilization of Physiotherapy Services in Nigeria: A Scoping Review

This project hosts the protocol for a scoping review mapping the available evidence on awareness, knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and utilization of physiotherapy services among populations in Nigeria. Review question: What evidence exists regarding awareness, knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and utilization of physiotherapy services among populations in Nigeria, and what geographic, population, conceptual and methodological gaps exist in that evidence base? Physiotherapy addresses conditions that carry a heavy burden of disability in Nigeria, yet its utilization depends first on public awareness that the profession exists. The Nigerian evidence on this question is fragmented across heterogeneous populations, geographically uneven across the six geopolitical zones, conceptually inconsistent in its use of the terms awareness, knowledge, perception and attitude, and methodologically varied, with much of it published in journals not indexed internationally. No existing or registered systematic or scoping review addressing this topic in Nigeria was identified in preliminary searches. The review follows the JBI methodology for scoping reviews (Aromataris et al., 2024, Chapter 10). Eligibility is defined by a PCC framework covering any population group in Nigeria, the constructs listed above, and all settings. Searches will cover freely accessible sources including MEDLINE via PubMed, African Journals Online, the African Index Medicus and WHO Global Index Medicus, PEDro, Google Scholar and Nigerian institutional repositories, supplemented by systematic backward and forward citation searching and hand-searching of key Nigerian and African physiotherapy journals. Two reviewers will independently screen all records. Andersen's behavioural model of health services use organises the synthesis. Planned outputs include a descriptive numerical summary, a geographical evidence map, a population by construct matrix, a thematic synthesis and an evidence-gap map. This protocol is reported with reference to PRISMA-P; the completed review will be reported according to PRISMA-ScR.