Physiotherapy as an academic discipline - from the perspective of Nordic doctoral dissertations

There are only a few studies focusing on the content of doctoral dissertations in the field of PT even though academic dissertations are important for shaping a discipline. The aim of this study was to explore and describe a paradigm and criteria for an academic discipline in Nordic doctoral dissertations written by physiotherapists. The study was based on content analysis of the abstracts in 418 doctoral dissertations conducted over three decades. A descriptive and retrospective research approach was used. The results show that the PT dissertations focus on clinical questions within a broad range of PT practise areas. They are mainly applied research studies with a quantitative approach, although qualitative and mixed methods are used. The dissertations are conducted in different academic faculties, however, mainly in medical and health sciences. Theoretical reflection about conceptual, ontological and epistemological issues is scarce. The concept analysis in the Swedish dissertations (n = 219) demonstrates a health- and function-oriented approach to reality. The results of this study indicate that PT as a discipline is clinically oriented and might be guided both by the implicit PT practise paradigm and by various scientific disciplines. Further theoretical reflections and studies about the theory of science in PT are needed.