Abstract
BackgroundThere is a long history of certain medical conditions being associated with stigma, stereotypes, and negative attitudes. Research has shown that such attitudes can have a detrimental effect on patients presenting with stigmatised medical conditions and can even flow on to impact their family. The objective of this study was to measure the attitudes of undergraduate students enrolled in six different health-related courses at Monash University toward patients with intellectual disability, substance abuse, and acute mental illness.MethodsA convenience sample of undergraduate students enrolled in six health-related courses in first, second and third years at Monash University were surveyed. The Medical Condition Regard Scale - a valid and reliable, self-report measure of attitudes - was administered to students along with a brief demographic form. Mean scores, t-tests, and ANOVA were used to analyse student attitudes. Ethics approval was granted.Results548 students participated. Statistically significant differences were found between the courses (p = 0.05), year of the course (p = 0.09), and gender (p = 0.04) for the medical condition of intellectual disability. There was no statistically significant difference between the courses, year of the course, gender, and age group for substance abuse or acute mental illness conditions.ConclusionThe findings suggest that students in undergraduate health-related courses, as a group, have a strong regard for patients with intellectual disability and some regard for patients with acute mental illness, but not for patients presenting with substance abuse problems.
Highlights
There is a long history of certain medical conditions being associated with stigma, stereotypes, and negative attitudes
The objective of this study was to measure the attitudes of undergraduate students enrolled in six different health-related courses at Monash University toward patients presenting with intellectual disability, substance abuse, and acute mental illness
Negative mean scores were obtained for three items on the Medical Condition Regard Scale (MCRS), ‘I feel especially compassionate toward patients like this’, ‘I wouldn’t mind getting up on call nights to care for patients like this’ and ‘I enjoy giving extra time to patients like this’
Summary
There is a long history of certain medical conditions being associated with stigma, stereotypes, and negative attitudes. Stigma, detracting stereotypes, and negative attitudes toward medical conditions are a major impediment in the provision of healthcare, with research showing that such attitudes can have a direct impact on patients’ well-being and the type of health care they receive [1]. Understanding the attitudes and beliefs towards different medical conditions amongst undergraduate students is a fundamental step in addressing the issue of negative attitudes so often reported in studies [4,5,1]. Once these students graduate they will be expected to treat a wide range of people presenting with various medical conditions without bias throughout their professional careers. Some attitudes may be expressed overtly while others may be more veiled, subtle, or covert
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