Session Information
Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Session Title: Education / History in Movement Disorders
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Agora 2 West, Level 2
Objective: The study was aimed to evaluate knowledge and attitude of medical students towards movement disorders.
Background: The understanding of movement disorders could pose a challenge to medical students despite the need for adequate familiarity of these disorders by medical professionals.
Method: This was a cross-sectional study consisting of 79 final year medical students of Madonna University, Elele, Southern Nigeria. Consenting students filled the study questionnaires which consisted of a socio-demographic information and questions on the knowledge and attitude towards movement disorders. Data were analysed with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20.
Results: The mean age of the study participants was 27+/-2.78 years with male to female ratio of 1.3:1. Seventy-two (91.1%) were mostly conversant with Parkinsonism followed by chorea, 70 (88.6%), tics, 64 (81.1%), athetosis, 58 (73.4%), dyskinesia, 55 (69.6%), dystonia, 52 (65.8%), ballism, 47 (59.5%) and the least familiar movement disorder among them was essential tremor, 46 (58.2%). Forty three (54.4%) students expressed difficulty with understanding movement disorder lectures. Common reasons given for difficulty in understanding movement disorder lectures were paucity of patients with movement disorders and lack of teaching aids. No significant relationship was found between socio-demographic variables (age, gender and marital status) of the study participants and expression of difficulty in understanding movement disorder lectures (P value > 0.05).
Conclusion: The movement disorder which the medical students were most conversant with was parkinsonism with varying rates of awareness for others. Medical educators should ensure the availability of audio-visual teaching aids for better appreciation of movement disorder lectures by students.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
E. Nwazor, C. Okeafor. Knowledge and attitude towards movement disorders among final year medical students in a Nigerian university [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2019; 34 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/knowledge-and-attitude-towards-movement-disorders-among-final-year-medical-students-in-a-nigerian-university/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2019 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/knowledge-and-attitude-towards-movement-disorders-among-final-year-medical-students-in-a-nigerian-university/