Date of Conferral

5-3-2024

Date of Award

May 2024

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Health Education and Promotion

Advisor

Nina Bell

Abstract

Exercise is associated with unmasking underlying cardiac disorders and increasing an athlete’s risk for experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) event during sports. Parental knowledge is an important component of health education in relation to the future of their child’s health. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to assess the relationship between parental knowledge about warning signs, symptoms, and risk factors associated with SCA in adolescent athletes and parental willingness to participate in an educational intervention to learn about SCA. The theoretical framework was based on Nutbeam’s conceptual model of health literacy. Eightyone parents whose adolescent children participated in a sport answered questions regarding their knowledge of signs, symptoms and risk factors associated with SCA in adolescent athletes. A cumulative odds ordinal logistic regression with proportional odds was used to predict the effect of total parental knowledge score of SCA on parents’ willingness to engage in an education intervention about SCA in adolescent athletes. The study found no statistically significant relationship between total parental knowledge score of SCA in adolescent athletes and parents’ willingness to engage in an educational intervention. Though the study failed to reject the null hypotheses, the outcomes revealed that 54% of participants had “low” parental knowledge of risk factors associated with SCA in adolescent athletes and that more than half of parents (67.9%) would be willing to participate in an educational intervention. Therefore, having educational resources available to parents when completing their child’s preparticipation evaluation (PPE) form may help reduce the risk of SCA in adolescent athletes.

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