Knowledge and attitudes of Turkish medical students about pandemic influenza

Knowledge and Attitudes of Turkish Medical Students About Pandemic Influenza

Purpose. To determine the knowledge and attitudes of the final class medical students of Erciyes University Medical Faculty and to establish their educational requirements.
Materials and Methods. The study was performed in 2007–2008 educational period. It was planned to take all of 210 students who studies at the final class of Erciyes University Medical Faculty. A questionnaire including 30 questions was distributed to the students in the classrooms. The questionnaires were filled by the students under the supervision of the researchers and than collected. Totally 183 students (87.1 %) were included in the study.
Results. Mean age of the study group was 24.5±1.3 and 59 % was male. Of the study group, 74.9 % stated that they were aware of the expectancy of WHO about global influenza pandemics, 60.1% stated they agree on this expectancy and 97.8% stated the global influenza pandemics would affect Turkey also. Approximately one half of the students are unaware of the global plans related to influenza pandemics, and 80 percent of the national plan of Turkey. In the study group, the percentages of the students who thought following preventive measures to be effective against influenza were; 81.4% for individual hygiene, 79.8% for influenza vaccine, 62.8% for mask using, 14.8% for chemopraphlaxis, and 40.4 % for excess vitamin C consumption. It was determined that 39.3% of the study group know the presence of the effective antiviral drugs for influenza but that only 28.4%  know the name of any drug.
Conclusion
It was concluded that the knowledge level of final class medical students of Erciyes University Medical Faculty on pandemic influenza was rather low and educational programs should be revised.
Key words. Influenza, medical student, knowledge, attitude.