Comparison of medical and non-medical student attitudes to social issues in medicine

Abstract

A 63-item questionnaire on attitudes to psychosocial issues in medicine was administered to final-year students in the Faculties of Medicine (n = 104), Pharmacy (n = 57) and Arts and Social Sciences (n = 75) of the University of Benin. The responses given were analysed by the summation and Cornell scalogram techniques for content and intensity. On aggregate, the pharmacy students scored significantly higher than their medical and arts/social science counterparts (P < 0.001). The advantage over medical students was on only one subscale: paramedical cooperation. The scores of the pharmacy and arts/social science groups were significantly lowe than those of medical students on the social factors subscale. On issues that threaten to diminish the traditional role and status of the medical profession (e.g. paramedical cooperation and government intervention), the attitude of medical students was either unenthusiastic or clearly resentful. However, they shared the same orientation as the other groups towards matters which did not challenge the prerogatives of medical doctors (e.g. preventive medicine and doctor-patient relationship). It is suggested that measures be adopted to raise the level of awareness of non-health professionals vis--vis the non-biological antecedents of disease and also to bridge the gap in attitudes among groups in the health care team.