ABSTRACT
Aim: To determine the knowledge and attitude of medical undergraduates towards COVID-19. Study Design: Cross-sectional. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted at Quaid-e Azam medical college from June 2020 to August 2020. Methodology: The undergraduate students enrolled in 1st year to final year of MBBS were included in the study. A proforma was prepared by using the Google Docs and validated before starting the study. The reliability of the questionnaire was 0.78. Data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version-20. All the qualitative variables were presented as frequency and percentages while quantitative as mean and standard deviation. Knowledge score was compared with demographic variables by using independent t-test and one-way ANOVA test, as appropriate. p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: About 56% of the participants were female while remaining 44% were male, majority of them i.e. 51.6% were mediocre. Majority were from 3rd year and final year i.e. 25.2% and 24.4% respectively. Looking over the mean knowledge score the final year students having more knowledge about COVID-19 then the other students from different years, among them the female participants were having more knowledge score then their male counterparts with significant highly p-value. Comparing knowledge score with socioeconomic status reported that upper class was having higher score. Over-all 74% of final year students answered correctly to all of the questions regarding knowledge towards COVID-19. Considering specifically the attitude of medical students towards COVID-19, majority of the students including all years of MBBS, like to get more information about COVID-19. Conclusion: It can be concluded that Pakistani undergraduate students of MBBS are having good knowledge about COVID-19. They are also well-aware of the protective measures which should be taken. In comparison, final year students having the higher level of knowledge then the students of other years of MBBS. All the students having positive attitude for stopping COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Aim: The aim of the current study is to evaluate the mental distress facing by the MBBSs students during the first wave of COVID-19. Study Design: Cross-sectional. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted at Quaid-e Azam medical college Bahawalpur during the period of May 2020 to July 2020. Methodology: MBBS undergraduate students were included in the study. For assessing mental stress, the questionnaire used was the modified form of Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R). The proforma was prepared by using Google Docs and disseminated through the student's WhatsApp groups. Data was analyzed by using Special Package for Social Science version-20. Frequency and percentages were calculated for the qualitative variables while association was analyzed by using Chi-square test. p-value <= 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: About half of the participants were female students i.e. 55.2%. The frequency distribution of stress level among students showed that the majority of participants were facing mild level of stress i.e. 130 participants out of total 310 participants (41.9%), 112 participants were having moderate stress level (36.2%), followed by 53 participants with severe level of stress (17.1%) while 15 participants (4.8%) were having extremely severe intensity of stress. It was also found out that the gender and socioeconomic status have a significant association with the mental stress but the year of study has no any association with the mental stress as reported statistically non-significant p-value. Conclusion: The current study concluded that the mental distress experienced by medical undergraduate during COVID-19 is more severe than that of the general population and the female students are more prone to develop depressive symptoms. So there is a need of counselling session to improve the mental health of our medical under graduates as they are the future handlers of medical profession.