Objective: Loss of knowledge a year after studying neuroanatomy has been shown to be between 47.5% and 60%. This is in contrast to retention rates of 80% or more for the basic sciences generally. The aim of this study was to measure how much neuroanatomy knowledge was retained by chiropractic students a year after taking a neuroanatomy course.
Design: One hundred and twenty one eligible students from two cohorts voluntarily completed a series of multiple choice questions from the previous year's final examination (2011). The scores for the questionnaire were compared with the previous year's results.
Results: The 2012 scores for the combined cohort dropped by 35.8%, and there was no difference between the two cohorts (p=0.1282). However the scores for the two cohorts had been different in 2011 (p=0.005) and surprisingly the weaker cohort retained more information, which could be attributed to their use of the knowledge in a unit of clinical neurology they had taken during 2012.
Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate a better retention of neuroanatomy knowledge by our chiropractic students compared to the current literature.
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