A STATISTICAL PROFILE OF PHYSICAL-THERAPISTS, 1980 AND 1990

Background and Purpose. To plan for future needs, human resource analy sts require demographic data. In this research, US census data were us ed to develop a profile of physical therapists. Subjects. Data were ex tracted from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the US censuses of po pulation from 1980 and 1990. Samples of 3,112 physical therapists from 1990 and 1,530 therapists from 1980 were obtained. Methods. A profile was generated by use of descriptive statistics to examine geographic distribution, social characteristics, employment characteristics, and income. Linear regression was used to determine factors that influence income. Results. During tile 1980s, physical therapy demonstrated rem arkable growth, with trends in physical therapist location, gender, ag e, and place of employment. Even as the profession aged, it stayed an occupation composed predominantly of women, but one less concentrated in hospitals. Geographically, physical therapists remained clustered i n the Northeast and along the Pacific Coast. Income generated by physi cal therapists was predicted by social and geographic characteristics. Conclusion and Discussion. This study presents a new data source to e xamine physical therapist characteristics. It provides information nec essary for health care planners and analysts to better understand the nature of the profession and those who practice.