Digital health understanding and preparedness of medical students: a cross-sectional study

Figures & data

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the survey participants.

Sociodemographic characteristic	Survey Started		Survey completed		All Austrian medical students
	n	%	n	%	N	%
Total	1017	100	650	100	11,978	100
Gender
Female	575	56.5	357	54.9	6,446	53.8
Male	415	40.8	280	43.1	5,532	46.2
Diverse	3	0.3	3	0.5	N/A	N/A
Not specified	9	0.9	6	0.9	N/A	N/A
Missing	15	1.5	4	0.6	-	-
Age group
<21	251	24.8	154	23.7	1,308^a	11.8^a
21–24	518	50.9	332	51.1	5,177^a	46.8^a
25–29	187	18.4	131	20.2	3,240^a	29.3^a
>29	39	3.9	24	3.7	1,345^a	12.1^a
Missing	22	2.2	9	1.4	-	-
University
Medical University of Vienna	575	57.4	381	58.6	4,750	39.7
Medical University of Graz	68	6.8	39	6.0	2,852	23.8
Medical University of Innsbruck	196	19.6	125	19.2	3,468	29.0
Medical Faculty JKU Linz	163	16.3	101	15.5	908	7.6
Missing	15	1.5	4	0.6	-	-
Previous study or vocational training
Yes	258	25.4	175	26.9	N/A	N/A
No	744	73.2	471	72.5	N/A	N/A
Missing	15	1.5	4	0.6	-	-
Educational background
High school	833	81.8	551	84.8	8,122^§	95.4^§
School or training with technical focus	85	8.3	56	8.6	388^§	4.6^§
Other	84	8.3	40	6.2	N/A	N/A
Missing	15	1.5	3	0.5	-	-
Study year
First	297	29.2	186	28.6	1,893	15.8
Second	197	19.4	121	18.6	2,045	17.1
Third	159	15.6	108	16.6	1,689	14.1
Fourth	135	13.3	85	13.1	1,690	14.1
Fifth	130	12.8	94	14.5	1,612	13.5
Sixth	83	8.2	52	8.0	3,050	25.5
Missing	16	1.6	4	0.6	-	.

^aValues do not include data from the Medical Faculty JKU Linz who was only able to provide aggregate statistics: Average age of students enrolled in bachelor studies: 22.5/master studies: 25.5. ^§Values exclude data from the Medical University of Innsbruck who was unable to provide data for this characteristic.

Figure 1. Trend line analysis for curriculum recommendations per study year.

Table

Variable	Self-assessment score^a
	M	SD	Min	Max	H/MW-U	p
Gender					H(1,3) = 63.53	<.001
Male	13.3	4.5	2.8	30.25
Female	10.64	3.9	2.2	24.5
Diverse	7.7	4.7	2.3	11.3
Not specified	9.2	2.9	6.3	13.6
Age group
<21	10.6	4.1	2.2	30.3	H(1,3) = 22.72
21–24	11.9	4.3	2.3	27.3		<.001
25–29	12.7	4.6	2.9	24.2
>29	12.8	4.0	4.3	20.9
Previous study or vocational training
Yes	12.9	4.6	2.9	24.7	MW-U = 34,399.50	.001
No	11.4	4.2	2.2	30.3
Educational background
High School	11.5	4.3	2.2	30.3	H(1,2) = 12.52	.002
School or training with technical focus	13.8	4.6	3.3	24.7
Other	12.3	4.8	4.5	27.3
Study year
First	11.3	4.4	2.2	30.3	H(1,5) = 14.71	.012
Second	11.4	4.5	3.0	24.7
Third	11.8	4.5	2.3	24.6
Fourth	12.3	4.2	2.9	24.9
Fifth	12.0	4.0	4.1	24.5
Sixth	13.2	4.3	2.8	24.4

^aMaximum reachable score: 31.97

Table

	Data protection		Digital communication guidelines		Ethic principles for digital communication		Fake news
	Mdn	IQR	Mdn	IQR	Mdn	IQR	Mdn	IQR
Has significantly impacted medicine during the last 5 years. ^a	4	5–4	3	4–3	3	4–3	4	5–3
Will impact medicine during the next 5 years. ^a	5	5–4	4	5–3	4	5–3	5	5–4
Is highly important for my future professional career. ^a	5	5–4	4	5–3	4	5–3	4	5–4
Is not properly covered within the curriculum. ^a	3	4–2	2	3–1	2	3–1	2	3–1
	Mean	STD	Mean	STD	Mean	STD	Mean	STD
Relevance ^b	93.62	13.31	75.81	23.09	81.67	22.88	88.87	21.38

^aItems were Likert scale items ranging from 0 – do not agree to 5 – strongly agree.

^bItems were assessed on a sliding scale ranging from 0 to 101.

Appendix Figure A1: questionnaire design process.

Appendix Figure A2: data analysis process.

Appendix Figure A3: a) Student self-assessment score per gender, b) Estimated marginal means per gender after controlling for age group, study year, ‘previous study or vocational training’ and educational background. Whiskers in b) indicate marginal mean ± 2x standard error. Note the different y-axis range between a) and b).

Appendix Figure A4: Student self-assessment score per a) ‘previous study or vocational training’, b) educational background and c) year of study.

Appendix Figure A5: Student self-assessment score per topic area per study year.

Appendix Figure A6: Attitudes towards impact of digitalization per study year.

Appendix Figure A7: Satisfaction with digital communication trainings per study year.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within its supplementary materials.