MEDICAL STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS COMMUNITY HEALTH

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Attitudes of medical students are important because as members and leaders of the health team in the national health system, they are potentially influential in affecting the opinions of others, particularly of their peers, other health workers, the public and public officials after graduation. This study was undertaken to describe the magnitude of, and social and demographic factors associated with, negative attitudes towards community health activities among medical students in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. The study population consisted of all premedical, preclinical 1, preclinical 2, clinical 1 and clinical 2 students of the Faculty in the 1985/86 academic year. A cohort of students consisting of all premedical and preclinical 1 students also completed the same questionnaire for a second time in the second half of the 1988/89 academic year (ie, after a three year interval). A total of 434 out of 523 students (83%) completed the questionnaires in the academic year 1985/86. For the academic year 1988/89 the corresponding figure was 219 out of 262 (83.6%). It is shown that medical students in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia are predominantly young, males, christians, Amhara, from major urban centers and mid- or upper- income families. It is also shown that negative attitudes towards community health activities increased during the course of medical school and that this negative attitude was positively associated with type of high school attended (non-government) and with parental income (mid- or upper-level) in this population of medical students.