Concussion Awareness of Sports Physicians
Oğuz Yüksel1
, Fatma Akgül2, Gamze Üngür3, Merve Demir Benli1, Birsu Topçugil1, Murat Duman4
1Sports Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey
2Children’s Emergency Department, Educational and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Van, Turkey
3Deparment of Coaching Education, School of Sports Sciences and Technology, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey
4Department of Child Emergency Care, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey
Keywords: Concussion, sports medicine, survey
Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate concussion awareness of sports medicine doctors.
Materials and Methods: A pen and paper survey about concussion is conducted to sports medicine specialists and residents attending to 16th Turkish National Sports Medicine Congress. Survey was composed of 3 sections. First section was questioning if the participant is a resident or specialist, age, number of concussions managed per year and attendence to a lecture about concussion in the past. Participants were asked to choose concussion symptoms from 15 symptoms given in section two. Third section contained 10 true/false questions.
Results: Forty five participants were included in the study. 53.3 % of the participants had never managed concussion in their practice. 64.4 % of the participants had never attended to a lecture about concussion. Mean symptom score was 9.9±1.8 over 15. The average number of correct answers to true/false questions was 4.31 ± 1.36 over 10.
Conclusion: Concussion education and awareness of sports physicians in Turkey are below the expected. Comprehensive education on concussion should be included in medical school programs and sports medicine residency curriculum.
Cite this article as: Yuksel O, Akgul F, Ungur G, et al. Concussion awareness of sports physicians. Turk J Sports Med. 2019;54(1):17-23.
