Misconceptions about traumatic brain injuries among South African university students

作者：Pretorius C^*; Broodryk M

来源：South African Journal of Psychiatry, 2013, 19(3): 75-79.

DOI：10.7196/SAJP.436

Objective. To investigate the incidence and type of misconceptions about traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) harboured by university students. %26lt;br%26gt;Method. A convenience sample of 705 university students were recruited and data were collected using an electronic survey. The link to the survey was sent via e-mail to all registered students at Stellenbosch University. The participants had to complete the Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury (CM-TBI) questionnaire. %26lt;br%26gt;Results., The findings of this study suggest that the students subscribe to misconceptions from each of the 7 categories of misconceptions about TBIs. The mean percentages of misconceptions about TBIs were calculated and the amnesia (mean 49.7%) and unconsciousness (mean 46.1%) categories were identified as the categories about which the respondents had the most misconceptions, while the mean percentages of misconceptions were lower for the categories of recovery (mean 27.6%), rehabilitation (mean 26.56%), prevention (mean 20.8%), brain injury sequelae (mean 18.7%) and brain damage (mean 8.4%). %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusion. Generally, these findings appear to be in keeping with previous literature, which suggests that misconceptions about TBIs are common among the general population. This study%26apos;s identification of these misconceptions could help create awareness, provide a focus for information provision, and contribute to the development of educational intervention programmes tailored for the South, African context.

• 出版日期2013-8