Persistence of Brain Injury Misconceptions Among Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students

Abstract

Results: Descriptive statistics revealed that beginning master's students, graduating master's students, and the lay public all endorsed some misconceptions about TBI. A series of chi-square analyses revealed that the 3 groups demonstrated significant differences in response accuracy. Specifically, the lay public endorsed more misconceptions than both student groups, and the graduating master's students endorsed fewer misconceptions than the beginning master's students. Conclusion: Although education is effective in dispelling some common misconceptions about TBI, persistent endorsement of some erroneous beliefs continues. Direct training is needed to address these fallacies.

Misconceptions about brain injury in Turkey

“…Likewise, the American and the British also have misbeliefs about these two items; notably, the statement associated with the greatest misconception was item 8 (6.6% and 8.6% response accuracy, respectively). This was the only statement to which fewer than 50% of the SLPs provided the correct answer [13]. Eight items (1-4, 6, 9, 14, 15) in Hux et al [9] and five items (1,4,9,15,16) in Chapman and Hudson [10] achieved a response accuracy of over 70%.…”

“…Assessment of the questionnaire is carried out on the basis of true and false responses. Eight of the 17 items are true (1,2,7,10,11,13,14,17) and nine of them are false statements (3-6, 8, 9, 12, 15, 16) (Table II). In accordance with the original survey, 'true, probably true, false and probably false' options were presented to the participants and they were asked to mark the best option for them.…”

“…The instrument, which is highly functionally used in the related literature, contains four parts. The first part regarding general knowledge about BI includes four items (1)(2)(3)(4), the second on coma and unconsciousness contains three items (5-7), the third on memory deficits is furnished with four items (8)(9)(10)(11) and the fourth part on recovery process includes six items (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Assessment of the questionnaire is carried out on the basis of true and false responses.…”

“…In addition, Farmer and Johnson [11] found that one third of rehabilitation professionals and almost half of the educators had misconceptions concerning BI. Other health professionals such as school psychologists and speech-language therapists (SLTs), whose job description include assessing and conducting therapies for BI patients, may sometimes procure wrong information about brain injury [12,13]. Similarly, Hux et al [14] administered a questionnaire to school SLTs to determine how much they knew about BI and if they were ready to provide rehabilitation services for young BI patients.…”

Assessment of Veteran and Caregiver Knowledge About Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in a VA Medical Center

“…For example, the informational cascade hypothesis of Bikhchandani et al 43,44 posits that individuals tend to conform to the behavior and ideals of the larger group. Evans et al 45 suggest that this might be applied to the perpetuation of brain injury misconceptions, where individuals base their own beliefs on the false beliefs of others. Several cognitive biases may also apply.…”