title: Neurophobia in medical students and junior doctors--blame the GIK.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We aimed to create a definition of neurophobia, and determine its prevalence and educational risk factors amongst medical students and junior doctors in Singapore.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed medical students and junior doctors in a general hospital using electronic and paper questionnaires. We asked about knowledge, interest, perceived difficulty in neurology, and confidence in managing neurology patients compared to 7 other internal medicine specialties; quality and quantity of undergraduate and postgraduate neuroscience teaching, clinical neurology exposure, and postgraduate qualifications. Neurophobia was defined as ≤4 composite score of difficulty and confidence with neurology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and fifty-eight medical students (63.5%) and 131 junior doctors (73.2%) responded to the questionnaire. Neurophobia prevalence was 47.5% in medical students, highest amongst all medical subspecialties, and 36.6% in junior doctors. Multivariate analysis revealed that for medical students, female gender (OR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.3 to 6.7), low interest (OR 2.5, 95% CI, 1.0 to 6.2), low knowledge (OR 10.1, 95% CI, 4.5 to 22.8), and lack of clinical teaching by a neurologist (OR 2.8, 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.6) independently increased the risk of neurophobia. For doctors, low interest (OR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.3 to 7.0) and low knowledge (OR 2.7, 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.2) independently increased the risk of neurophobia, and female gender was of borderline significance (OR 2.0, 95% CI, 0.9 to 4.6).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neurophobia is highly prevalent amongst Singapore medical students and junior doctors. Low interest and knowledge are independent risk factors shared by both groups; female gender may also be a shared risk factor. The mnemonic GIK (Gender, Interest, Knowledge) identifies the risk factors to mitigate when planning teaching strategies to reduce neurophobia.
authors.affiliation: Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Kai-qian
authors.initials: KQ
authors.lastname: Kam
authors.forename: Glorijoy S E
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Erle C H
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Nien Yue
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Nigel C K
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009462:Neurology; D010820:Physicians; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires