Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards Leptospirosis among Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Students in India

ABSTRACT

Background: Students of medicine in India tend to follow textbooks from western authors for rural pathologies, zoonosis, and this geographical disconnect leads to gaps in familiarity with local diseases.

Aim: This study aims to assess knowledge, practices, and attitudes on leptospirosis among undergraduate and postgraduate medical students.

Methods: A cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire study was performed from June 2018 to May 2019 among 778 undergraduate students from six medical colleges of Tamil Nadu and 446 postgraduate students from two postgraduate institutions.

Results: The survey of 1224 medical students revealed that the postgraduate medical students’ knowledge of leptospirosis was better than undergraduates; however, there were important knowledge gaps in risk factors and management of leptospiral infection.

Conclusions: Although the results of the study are encouraging, poor knowledge of risk factors and of diagnosis of leptospirosis can significantly affect the quality of patient care. This calls for multifaceted interventions to improve the medical curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitude
• knowledge
• leptospirosis
• medical students
• practice

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research [Laptos/24/2013-ECD-I].