Concussion Knowledge among United Kingdom (UK) Medical Students: A Questionnaire Survey in 2 Universities across 2 year groups
Authors: Gardner Nick , Heron Neil 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Introduction
Concussion/sports-related concussion(SRC) is a common injury and carries potential for significant acute and long term consequences. The United Kingdom(UK) government are currently developing SRC protocols for use in grass roots sport, requiring doctors to make the diagnosis and management of SRC. Medical students, as the future doctors, need to therefore be able to assess, diagnose and manage SRCs. However no previous studies have assessed UK medical students’ knowledge of SRCs.
Aims
To assess SRC knowledge among UK medical students, comparing second and fifth (final) year medical students from two Universities (QUB and Keele University), using an electronic questionnaire.
Methods
A questionnaire survey was sent to second- and fifth-year medical undergraduates at both QUB and Keele Universities in March 2022. This gave us access to a potential 500 medical students at both Universities. The questionnaire was hosted on surveymonkey.com, with consent incorporated into the survey. Ethical approval was granted through QUB Research Ethics Committee (MHLS 21_150).
Results
Twenty-seven questionnaire responses (2.7% of potential respondents) were received. All respondents were in the age group 18-34 years old, with an approximately equal sex representation, 14 (51.85%) being female. Both Universities and year groups were represented in the responses, with 5 from Keele University and 22 from QUB.
Ten (37%) people couldn’t correctly identify the definition of a SRC. Five people incorrectly identified that to make the diagnosis of a SRC, a loss of consciousness is required. In terms of the mechanism of injury for SRC, 7 felt (incorrectly) that a direct physical contact to the head was required for the diagnosis. For the management of SRC, 6 respondents felt that neuroimaging was required (1 for MRI and 5 for CT brain).
When asked about undergraduate teaching for SRC, 11 (41%) said they had never received any SRC teaching, with only 5 (18.5% of respondents) having actually seen a concussed patient. When asked to grade their SRC knowledge, from 1 (inadequate) to 10 (completely adequate), the average score was 3.7.
When asked to grade SRC as something they wanted to learn more about as part of their medical curriculum and asked to score this 1 (not at all) to 10 (very much), the average score was 8.4. When asked about their preferred learning format, 17 said lecture.
Conclusion
This is the 1st study to assess SRC knowledge in UK medical students. Although the response rate was low, students expressed a strong desire to know more about how to diagnose and manage concussions, particularly in improving their knowledge of signs and symptoms of SRC and what red flag features to be aware of. Students identified a lecture format as their preferred form of teaching. Initiating formal medical student teaching on SRC will help the UK government in their roll out of grass root SRC diagnosis and management guidelines, which should help to improve the general management of SRC injuries and their long-term sequelae.