Health rights knowledge among medical school students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

BackgroundHealth care is a basic human right, and Saudi Arabia affirms these rights for all its citizens.ObjectivesTo assess the knowledge of medical students regarding health rights in Saudi Arabia.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) from September 2015 through November 2015. A questionnaire written in English collected demographic data and included questions about reproductive health care and health rights of women and patients with cancer, senility, or special needs.ResultsOf the 267 participants, 184 (68.9%) were female, and 252 (94.4%) were Saudi. Regarding consent, 87 (32.6%) and 113 (42.3%) participants believed a female patient required the consent of a male guardian to receive medical treatment or surgery, respectively, in Saudi Arabia, and only 106 (39.7%) knew that a female patient could provide consent for a caesarean section. Sixty-six (24.7%) believed that abortion is never allowed in Islam. Only 93 (34.8%) were aware that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients had health rights, about half (144, 53.9%) knew that cancer patients have a right to full information, and most (181, 67.8%) believed that a patient had the right to withhold health information from his/her family. Approximately half were aware that cancer patients have the right to free medical treatment (138, 51.7%) or that health rights applied to special needs patients (137, 51.3%) and senile patients (122, 45.7%).ConclusionsThe knowledge of KAU medical students regarding health rights of certain patient populations highlights the importance of health rights education in medical school.

Knowledge of Patient’s Health Rights among Medical Students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2020 – A Cross Sectional Study

“…Similar results were observed towards providing full information to a newly diagnosed cancer patient about his/her disease. However, half of the participant were knowledgeable, concerning the right of patient withholding information from their family [7].…”

“…A validated questionnaire was used from a previous study [7] for the purpose of data collection. The questions were divided into 5 sections with total of 24 questions survey sections as following:…”

“…One of the previous studies evaluated the extent of knowledge medical students, health care workers, and patients about PBR, which showed that 39.7% of female patients had no such right to make the decision and 45.7% had no knowledge. Moreover, 32.6% and 42.3% of the respondents believed that a male guardian was required to give an approval for women's medical treatment and surgery, respectively [7]. Another cross-sectional study done in Tabuk showed that majority of participants (98.5%) noti ed about diagnosis and treatments updates in understandable language and 95.1% knew that therapeutic group ought to report any savagery against children to the specialist [3].…”

“…In 2006, the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Saudi Arabia issued the Patient Bills Rights (PBR) and stated about all the required rights to health care to highlight the need medical care for every citizen. These rights to health care are available in their policy, procedure manual, and regular circulars [7]. Regarding patients' values and preferences of treatment, the sustainable development purposes included many purposes and targets for promoting health.…”

Human immunodeficiency virus related discrimination in general dentistry

“…However, most of the HIV-focused epidemiological instruments do not fit the conservative Saudi population 12. In a study done to assess health rights knowledge among medical students at King Abdulaziz University, only 34.8% of the study population knew about HIV patient’s health rights 13. In a study done to investigate the attitudes of dental students in King Saud University towards HIV patients, students’ believes were not in line with the code of ethics.…”