Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Sep 28;24(1):1062. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06057-y.
While conspiracy theories cover many different themes, medical conspiracy theories (MCTs) have become particularly prevalent in modern societies. As beliefs in MCTs can become a source of "infodemics", influence individual health behaviors and cause distrust in medical institutions and personnel, healthcare workers must find ways to overturn patients' conspiracy thinking. However, as the medical world is not free of these beliefs, in this study, we investigated beliefs in MCTs among medical and health science students and their association with reported health behaviors.
Our sample was derived from a self-administered, anonymized, computer-assisted web survey conducted among 1,175 medical and health science students enrolled at the Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland.
From a set of twenty different MCTs, one-third of students rejected all of them, 18% believed in one, 15% in two, 10% in three, and 24% supported four or more conspiracy theories. In addition, many students were hesitant or unsure about MCTs. We also found that nursing and midwifery students were the most likely to believe in MCTs, while medical and dental students were the least supportive. Support for MCTs was higher among students in the early years of their studies and who declared themselves religious and conservative. This study also highlights the association between students' support for MCTs and their reported health behaviors, including avoiding vaccinations, using alternative medicine, taking vitamin C, or using social media as an essential source of health information.
As medical and health science students are prone to conspiratorial thinking, they should be trained to act as a trusted and reliable source of medical information, to mitigate conspiratorial beliefs, and to act as role models for their patients and society, effectively shaping health behaviors in the population.
虽然阴谋论涵盖了许多不同的主题，但医学阴谋论（MCT）在现代社会中变得尤为流行。由于对 MCT 的信仰可能成为“信息疫情”的源头，影响个人的健康行为，并导致对医疗机构和医务人员的不信任，医疗工作者必须找到方法来推翻患者的阴谋思维。然而，由于医学界并非没有这些信仰，因此在这项研究中，我们调查了医学和健康科学专业学生对 MCT 的信仰及其与报告的健康行为的关联。
我们的样本来自于一项在波兰波兹南医科大学进行的、自我管理的、匿名的、计算机辅助的网络调查，共纳入了 1175 名医学和健康科学专业的学生。
在一组 20 种不同的 MCT 中，三分之一的学生拒绝了所有这些 MCT，18%的学生相信其中一种，15%的学生相信两种，10%的学生相信三种，24%的学生支持四种或更多的阴谋论。此外，许多学生对 MCT 持犹豫或不确定的态度。我们还发现，护理和助产学专业的学生最有可能相信 MCT，而医学和牙科专业的学生则最不支持 MCT。在研究的早期阶段、自称宗教和保守的学生中，支持 MCT 的学生比例更高。这项研究还强调了学生对 MCT 的支持与他们报告的健康行为之间的关联，包括避免接种疫苗、使用替代医学、服用维生素 C 或使用社交媒体作为获取健康信息的重要来源。
由于医学和健康科学专业的学生容易产生阴谋思维，因此应该对他们进行培训，使他们成为可靠的医学信息来源，以减轻阴谋信仰，并为他们的患者和社会树立榜样，有效地塑造人口的健康行为。
