Knowledge and interest in Public Health: opinions of undergraduate students in Physical Therapy

Objective: To analyze the opinions of undergraduate students in Physical Therapy on acquired knowledge and interest in the study of Public Health. Methods: This is a crosssectional and qualitative study conducted in a private higher education institution, in Maceió-AL, Brazil, from June to December 2010. It comprised students from 5th and 10th period, which were allocated by convenience sampling, resulting in a final sample of 40 students with 20 students from each period. Later, each student was individually interviewed in a private, lit, air conditioned place, without time limit, being collected through a digital voice recorder the answers to the following questions: “How do you judge your knowledge about Public Health?” and “What is your interest in the study of Public Health?”. Collective subject discourse was used to analysis of qualitative variables. Results: Students considered their knowledge of Public Health as “limited”. Regarding their interest, the students in 5th period declared “little interest”, while the academics of the 10th period reported themselves as “very interested”. Conclusions: From the point of view of undergraduate students in Physical Therapy, their knowledge about Public Health is limited. Interest in the study of Public Health is greater among the academics closer to graduation.