Knowledge and attitudes towards stem cells and the significance of their medical application among healthcare sciences students of Jouf University

Abstract

Background Adequate knowledge and positive attitude of the medical and dental students towards the stem cells and their utilization in medical science is extremely important keeping in view the ever-increasing potential of stem cells in the medical field. The present study was planned to assess the knowledge and attitude of the medical and dental students towards stem cells and their applications in medical science. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 217 medical and dental college students of the Jouf University. The systematic random sampling method was used to select students based on gender and year of study. After obtaining written informed consent, a self-administered questionnaire consisting of three parts was administered to the students. The first part collected the socio-demographic details; part 2 contains 15 questions regarding knowledge and part 3 contains 10 questions regarding attitude towards stem cells. Results Majority of the participants were males (54.4%) in the age group of 21–22 years. Awareness regarding Saudi stem cell donor registry was observed in 50.7% of the students . A total of 72.4% of the students possessed medium knowledge while 70% of the students possessed high attitude score towards stem cell research and its medical significance. A significant relationship was observed between the Saudi Stem Cell Donor Registry awareness and knowledge score with p-value of 0.04. Relationship between the knowledge and attitude scores was significant with p-value of 0.001 and with a Pearson correlation score of r = 0.334. Conclusion Medium to high level of knowledge was noted among majority of the participants and a high attitude score was also noted towards stem cells and their relevance. A significant positive correlation was observed between the knowledge and attitude scores. It is recommended to include various interventional educational programs for the medical and dental students on the significance of stem cells in the medical field.

Undergraduate medical students' perceptions regarding stem cells: Is there a need for incorporating a stem cells elective course in the academic curriculum?

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An Infodemic of Misinformation on Stem Cell Therapy Among the Population of Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

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Knowledge and Attitude toward the Therapeutic Potential of Human Amnion Stem Cells among Students of Taif University, Saudi Arabia

“…We discovered a strong positive association between knowledge and attitudes in the current study, which is consistent with previous studies published in Saudi Arabia. 25 Although the knowledge level was moderate for most of the questions, the attitude to uplifting the knowledge and enhancing awareness were high. Our findings are in disagreement with a study done earlier 19 on Malaysian nursing students where a poor correlation between knowledge and attitude was noted that they attributed to being influenced by religious and cultural issues.…”