Background
Undergraduate medical students in India participate in various research activities However, plagiarism is rampant, and we hypothesize that it is the lack of knowledge on how to avoid plagiarism. This study’s objective was to measure the extent of knowledge and attitudes towards plagiarism among undergraduate medical students in India.
Methods
It was a multicentre, cross-sectional study conducted over a two-year period (January 2018 – December 2019). Undergraduate medical students were given a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire which contained: (a) Demographic details; (b) A quiz developed by Indiana University, USA to assess knowledge; and (c) Attitudes towards Plagiarism (ATP) questionnaire.
Results
Eleven medical colleges (n = 4 government medical colleges [GMCs] and n = 7 private medical colleges [PMCs]) participated. A total of N = 4183 students consented. The mean (SD) knowledge score was 4.54 (1.78) out of 10. The factors (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]; 95% Confidence interval [CI]; p value) that emerged as significant predictors of poor knowledge score were early years of medical education (0.110; 0.063, 0.156; < 0.001) and being enrolled in a GMC (0.348; 0.233, 0.463; < 0.001).The overall mean (SD) scores of the three attitude components namely permissive, critical and submissive norms were 37.56 (5.25), 20.35 (4.20) and 31.20 (4.28) respectively, corresponding to the moderate category.
Conclusion
The overall knowledge score was poor. A vast majority of study participants fell in the moderate category of attitude score. These findings warrant the need for incorporating formal training in the medical education curriculum.
Sudden death (SD) is described as “death within 24 hours from the earliest manifestation, without any proof of violence and with no pre-existing disease, where no cause of death can be identified clinically”. In about 5%–10% of cases of sudden cardiac death (SCD), no underlying heart disease can be found at autopsy. Mostly these are the arrhythmic SCD and have a morphologically normal heart. There is a scope for uncertainty among relatives and/or investigating authorities regarding the cause & manner of death specifically in unattended sudden cardiac death. The postmortem examination must include detailed history or clinically relevant information of the deceased, his/her family members, macroscopic, microscopic, toxicological & molecular examination.
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