An assessment of the level of awareness of e-health among Saudi medical students

Abstract

Background Previous studies described the levels of awareness of patients and health care providers on e-health in general and on e-health for a certain condition/disease. However, none of these studies was conducted in Saudi Arabia. The aims of this study were 1)To determine the levels of knowledge, attitude and practice of medical students on e-health, and 2) To identify the predictors of e-health practice among medical students. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 440 medical students at the college of medicine, King Saud bin-Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was conducted, during October/November 2018, using a previously validated questionnaire, to assess: (1) knowledge in three domains; e-health definition (13 statements), fields of application of e-health (8 statements), methods of using e-health (7 statements), (2) attitude toward using e-health (8 statements) and (3) reported practice of e-health in medical training (5 statements). A scoring system was used to calculate the total and percentage score of knowledge, attitude and practice for each student. Multiple regression analysis was applied to identify predictors of e-health practice. Significance was considered at p<0.05. Results of the 440 medical students surveyed, the majority were females (55.7%), of stream type1 (79.8%) and from families whose monthly income was more than 10,000SR (82.8%). Overall knowledge about e-health was unsatisfactory (PMS=71.62%), with only 43.6% of all students reporting satisfactory level. However, this level was satisfactory for fields of application (Percentage mean score-PMS=76.43%) and unsatisfactory for definition of e-health (PMS=70.69%) and methods of its use (PMS=65.69%) domains. Overall attitude towads e-health use was positive (PMS=82.32%), with nearly three-quarters of all students (73.4%) reporting positive attitude. Generally, good level of practice of e-health was reported by students (PMS=84.27%), with more than three-quarters of medical students (78.4%) reporting good practice. Adjusting for age, gender, stream, educational grade and family monthly income, good practice was significantly predicted with higher knowledge (t=2.219, p=0.027) and attidude (t=2.114, p=0.035) scores. Conclusion This study provides basic information regarding medical students’ knowledge, attitude, and practice on e-health. More resources should be directed to elevate medical students’ knowledge and to motivate them to practice e-health using the available tools.