Family & Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Professor at Epidemiology Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Sixth year Medical students, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
J Infect Public Health. 2018 Jan-Feb;11(1):18-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2017.02.015. Epub 2017 Jul 8.
Zika Virus (ZIKV) and its associated consequences remain vital public health challenge of international concerns. The current study was done to assess knowledge and attitudes towards ZIKV and the factors associated with good knowledge among medical students in King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 426 students. They were selected through multistage stratified random sample method, 2016. A validated, confidential, interviewing questionnaire contained 25 knowledge and 10 attitude items was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were done. Results revealed that Facebook was the commonest source of ZIKV information. About half of the participants correctly identified mosquito bites and vertical route as ZIKV transmission modes. However, smaller percentages recognized the sexual and blood transmission modes. Calculations of knowledge score revealed that 77.5%, 15.0%, and 7.5% of the participants obtained poor, fair, and satisfactory scores, respectively. Age, educational year and attending ZIKV training were significantly associated with good knowledge (p<0.05). Concerning attitudes, about half of the participants agreed that ZIKV could add new burden on healthcare system of the affected countries. Most of participants were interested in learning more about ZIKV, emerging diseases and travel epidemiology. In conclusion, medical students had limited knowledge about ZIKV, and good attitudes towards learning about it. Conduction of ZIKV educational programs, and development of courses about emerging disease epidemiology are required.
寨卡病毒（ZIKV）及其相关后果仍然是国际关注的重要公共卫生挑战。本研究旨在评估医学专业学生对寨卡病毒的知识和态度，以及与良好知识相关的因素。在沙特阿拉伯吉达的阿卜杜勒阿齐兹国王大学进行了一项横断面研究。采用多阶段分层随机抽样方法，于 2016 年选择了 426 名学生。使用经过验证的、保密的、访谈式问卷，其中包含 25 个知识和 10 个态度项目。进行了描述性和推断性统计分析。结果表明，Facebook 是寨卡病毒信息的最常见来源。大约一半的参与者正确识别了蚊虫叮咬和垂直传播途径是寨卡病毒的传播方式。然而，较小的比例识别了性传播和血液传播方式。知识得分的计算显示，77.5%、15.0%和 7.5%的参与者分别获得了较差、中等和满意的分数。年龄、教育年限和参加寨卡病毒培训与良好知识显著相关（p<0.05）。关于态度，约一半的参与者认为寨卡病毒可能会给受影响国家的医疗保健系统增加新的负担。大多数参与者有兴趣更多地了解寨卡病毒、新发疾病和旅行流行病学。总之，医学专业学生对寨卡病毒的了解有限，但对学习寨卡病毒的态度良好。需要开展寨卡病毒教育计划，并开发关于新发疾病流行病学的课程。
