Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Medical Science Students Regarding Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Emerging infectious diseases are contagious, made of a newfound lineage of a microorganism. The aim of this survey was to evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practice of Health sciences students regarding emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 462 randomly selected students from several constituent colleges of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, including the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine, Dentistry, and Paramedical (from October to March 2019). For data collection, a structured Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) questionnaire was used, which its validity was checked by professionals. At the end, the collected data were analyzed by SPSSV19 using independent t-test and ANOVA. Results: A number of 230 (49.8%) participants were female. According to the collected data, the mean knowledge, attitude, and practice were at a medium level, which are not ideal and show that, there are several weaknesses in the curriculum. The mean knowledge scores for medicine, dentistry, laboratory science, and nursery students were 42.53±15.78, 46.24±20.99, 39.63±15.35, 40±19.43. The mean attitude scores were 60.25±6.13, 59.68±5.86, 58.60±5.06, 57.77±6.59, and their practice mean scores were 58.99±25.11, 67.80±25.72, 62.46±24.48, and 62.29±21.08. Conclusion: According to the collected data, paying more attention to the microbiology course plan is recommended in all medical and paramedical disciplines. Moreover, Further education should be given to prepare students for having proper practices preventing from the spread of infection.