Impacts to Australian physiotherapy research during the COVID-19 pandemic – a scoping review

Background Australia’s strict lockdown measures posed significant logistical and practical challenges for researchers. The extent of the pandemic’s impact on physiotherapy research in Australia unknown. The aim of this scoping review was to identify how physiotherapy research conducted in Australia was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A scoping review was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychInfo (Ovid), Nursing & Allied Health via ProQuest, PubMed, and PEDro to identify Australian physiotherapy research conducted between March 2020 and January 2023 that reported the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their research. Results Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. Four themes emerged regarding the pandemic's impact: delayed research (n = 8), reduced quality (n = 23), changed methods (n = 10), and cessation of research (n = 3). Ten studies reported more than one impact. Twenty-five studies used face-to-face methods and 10 used online/non-contact methods. Nine studies switched from face-to-face to online/non-contact methods. These nine studies reported less impacts relating to quality and/or delays. Conclusion Research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic that used non-contact/online methods were less affected. To circumvent pandemic-related impacts, researchers may benefit from utilizing re-creative strategies when planning research by adopting principles of project management to develop more flexible research protocols.