Injury Prevention in Medical Education: A Systematic Literature Review.

OBJECTIVE

Traumatic injury is the first cause of death for Canadians aged 1 to 44 years old. To reduce the global burden of injury, the need for healthcare professionals with injury prevention proficiency is growing. The aim of this study was to review the literature to identify and analyze current injury prevention curriculums amongst medical undergraduate and residency programs.

DESIGN

A systematic literature review (no date restriction was used) was conducted using Embase, Medline, ERIC, and CINAHL. Three reviewers independently selected studies, extracted data, checked accuracy, assessed risk of bias, and assessed quality. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guideline was followed. The study was registered with PROSPERO, #CRD42016048805.

PARTICIPANTS

Articles were included if they were peer-reviewed, published in the English language, and reported data on injury prevention and control curriculum.

RESULTS

Eight hundred and twenty-four articles were identified with the initial search strategy. Internal consistency reliability, generalizability, evidence for content, criterion-related and construct validity was performed. The systematic review synthesized the characteristics (population, intervention type, outcome measures) described in the literature. This review is the first step in identifying gaps in injury prevention teaching and curriculums for medical students and residents.

CONCLUSION

The number of studies reporting the incidence and/or effectiveness of injury prevention and control curriculum is limited across the literature. Therefore, there is a knowledge gap in providing injury prevention education. Given that physicians play a vital role in the prevention or control of injuries, further development of medical undergraduate and residency programs to include core concepts of injury prevention would be unquestionably paramount.