Sports medicine awareness among healthcare professionals

Objectives: Sports medicine is a multidisciplinary specialty. In the literature, there is no study examining awareness about the specialty. This study aimed to investigate the level of awareness on sports medicine specialty among healthcare professionals. Methods: This study was designed as a cross-sectional and descriptive study. In this study, data were collected over the internet using an online survey system (Google Forms). Data, comprising occupational information of the participants were in the first part, status of applying to sports medicine in the second part, and awareness about sports medicine in the third part, were collected. Results: A total of 869 participants (67.5% female, 32.5% male) completed the survey. Of the total responders, 40.9% (n=356) were physicians, 15.5% (n=135) were administrative/technical staff, and 43.5% (n=378) were other health personnel. The number who attended sports medicine outpatient clinics for any reason was 294 (33.8%). The most common reason for referral to the sports medicine outpatient clinic was musculoskeletal injury (n=146, 49.6%). Awareness on sports medicine specialty was high for 49.3% (n=428), moderate for 44.3% (n=385), and low for 6.4% (n=56) of the participants. There was no significant relationship between age, gender, institutions and professions of the participants, and awareness level about the sports medicine specialty (p=0.115, p=0.163, p=0.139, p=0.386, respectively). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that healthcare professionals were aware of the sports medicine specialty.