1. Knowledge and Attitudes of Medical Students towards Occupational Diseases.
- Author
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GÜNGÖRDÜ, Nejdiye and KURTUL, Seher
- Subjects
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OCCUPATIONAL disease prevention , *ONLINE education , *HEALTH occupations students , *MEDICAL students , *CROSS-sectional method , *OCCUPATIONAL exposure , *FISHER exact test , *OCCUPATIONAL hazards , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *CHI-squared test , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *STUDENT attitudes , *INDUSTRIAL hygiene , *DATA analysis software - Abstract
Background: Occupational diseases can be prevented by implementing the appropriate occupational health and safety measures against occupational hazards in the workplace. Unfamiliarity with and mismanagement of occupational diseases by physicians is often linked to inadequate medical training. This study aims to investigate medical students' awareness of, knowledge and attitudes towards oc- cupational health, exposure to occupational hazards, and preventive measures. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with medical students between March and June 2021. Due to the introduction of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, the questionnaire was sent to the students in the electronic medium. The data analysis was performed with SPSS (version 21). Pearson chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used for the comparison of the categorical variables for two independent groups. Results: Of the 547 medical students who participated in the study, 56.7% (n= 310) were female, and 43.3% (n=257) were male. The median age was 22 (18-30) years. Of the students, 29.4% (n=161) were attending the preclinical classes, 27.8% (n=152) were 6th-year, 21.9% (n=120) were 4th-year, and 20.8% (n=114) were 5th-year. Of the participants, 12.2% (n=67) scored their level of knowledge about the perceived occupational diseases 1 out of 5, 40% (n=219) scored 2 out of 5, 38.6% (n=211) scored 3 out of 5, 9.1% (n=50) scored 4 out of 5. It was found that the level of knowledge increased with the class level. Conclusions: This study showed that the medical students' knowledge about occupational diseases is at a moderate level, and it is essential to offer a dedicated course on occupational diseases during medical training in order to increase their knowledge about these diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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