Background
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the use of the current best evidence for patient care. Medical students should critically appraise the research evidence to help them during their clinical practice in the future. We conducted this study to assess the skills, terms and attitude toward EBM.
Method
We conducted a cross-sectional study for medical students from governmental universities. Students completed an online validated questionnaire consisting of several sections to assess skills, attitude and knowledge about terms related to EBM. We used a scale ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree) for the 11 questions assessing the attitude and a scale ranging from 1(Poor) to 5(advanced) for EBM skills.
Results
A total of 761 medical students with a mean age of 21.97 ± 1.64 participated in the study. 327 (43 %) of them were males. The most commonly used search engines were Google 690 (91 %) and Wikipedia 465 (61 %). Medical books 719 (94 %) and lecture notes 353 (46 %) were the most common sources for health information. The majority of students rated their skills related to EBM as average and below average for all questions (overall = 2.18 ± 0.8). Students rated their skills as poor (31 %) in locating professional literature, as average (34 %) in searching online databases, poor (42 %) in critical appraisal of a scientific publication reporting findings from clinical research and poor (36 %) in Critical appraisal of available scientific literature. Regarding attitude, the overall mean score was 2.83 ± 0.76. There is no significant difference in attitude score between students with or without EBM training (P = 0.2).
The terms with the highest understanding were case-control study (45 %) and case report (44 %) for study design. Median (44 %) and sample size (43 %) for statistics. Incidence (46 %) and prevalence (44 %) for epidemiology.
Conclusions
Medical students have a knowledge gap in skills and terms related to EBM and an average attitude towards EBM. The majority of them were using a nonscientific search engine to obtain medical information. There is a need to educate students about the proper steps for getting the scientific literature and EBM skills.
Background
Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by Monkeypox virus, an Orthopoxvirus. The 2022 Monkeypox outbreak has provoked a considerable amount of fear among the public. Awareness about this disease would modify the public attitudes in the fight against Monkeypox. We conducted this study aiming to assess the awareness and prediction of the middle east public about Monkeypox.
Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2022. Data were collected from eight middle east countries using an online self-administered questionnaire distributed through educational and social media platforms. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS version 26.
Results
About 11,016 individuals have participated in this study. The majority of the participants have not seen a Monkeypox case, but will not travel to a country with the epidemic. Most of the participants knew the causative organism. Importantly, the majority were not aware of Monkeypox mode of transmission, symptoms, complications, and vaccination. A considerable proportion were aware of the disease protective measures. Participants' awareness was mostly gained from social media and it varied by age, gender, educational level, and country. The majority predicted acquiring Monkeypox when protective measures not taken, progression to a pandemic with economic consequences, and ability of ministry of health to control the epidemic. Participants' predictions varied by their country.
Conclusion
Middle east public knowledge about monkeypox is poor. Raising awareness about Monkeypox (especially mode of transmission, symptoms, and preventive measures) would be of benefit in controlling the epidemic. This study constitutes an evidence upon which health education programs could be designed.
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