Perspectives of students in a medical school regarding Hepatitis B and C in North West India

Authors

  • Rajiv Kumar Gupta Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, J&K, India
  • Parveen Singh Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, J&K, India
  • Bhavna Langer Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, J&K, India
  • Rashmi Kumari Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, J&K, India
  • Najma Akhter Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, J&K, India
  • Riya Gupta Department of Community Medicine, Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences & Hospital, Sidhra, Jammu, J&K, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20175213

Keywords:

Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Medical students, Northwest India

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C are among the major public health problems in the world and students in the medical schools as a group is highly vulnerable to these infections. The current study aimed to assess the perspectives (knowledge, attitude and practices) of these students about both Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical school in northwest India using a self administered questionnaire. This study was carried out in the month of July 2017 using a convenience sample of Pre-final MBBS students.

Results: The knowledge of the respondents was found to be good on most of the parameters except for living with Hepatitis B/C patient being a risk factor for disease and Hepatitis B being curable. On the same pattern, attitudes were also found to be positive on most of the parameters except willingness to undergo screening for the diseases. Practices of the respondents were also adequate except for use of gloves while examining a patient/collecting blood sample. An important positive practice observed was that 92.8% of the respondents were protected against Hepatitis B.

Conclusions: The study has concluded that perspective of medical students towards Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C are reasonably good and areas of concern need to be taken care of. Both these diseases remain a challenge for health community in general and medical students in particular due to their being an occupational hazard, so the need for infection control training before they start clinical education is strongly recommended.

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Published

2017-11-23

How to Cite

Gupta, R. K., Singh, P., Langer, B., Kumari, R., Akhter, N., & Gupta, R. (2017). Perspectives of students in a medical school regarding Hepatitis B and C in North West India. International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, 6(12), 2889–2893. https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20175213

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Section

Original Research Articles