Knowledge and Attitudes of Medical Faculty Intern Students in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Hypertension: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Objective: Hypertension is an important public health problem with high morbidity and mortality and seen in approximately 1 in 3 people all over the world. Hypertension can cause direct or indirect labor losses, but despite this, awareness in the society remains at low levels. This research was conducted to examine the awareness of hypertension in newly graduated medical school students.
 
 Methods: There search is across-sectional descriptive study. The population of the study consisted of 55 students studying in the last year of XXX University Faculty of Medicine. For the study, a questionnaire consisting of 26 questions was sent to the students electronically (Google forms), which was prepared by there searcher and questioned the presence of hypertension risk factors in the participants, the knowledge and attitudes of the participants about the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.
 
 Results: 96,3% (n=53) of 55 people were reached. 43.4% (n=23) of the participants were female and 56.6% (n=30) were male. When the risk factors in the Turkish Hypertension Consensus Report were questioned among the participants, it was seen that the most common risk factor was having a stressful personality with 66% (n=35). 34% (n=18) of the participants had not had their blood pressure measured in the last 6 months. Only 3.8% (n=2) stated that they could completely manage a hypertension patient with their current knowledge. It was seen that the average of correct answers given by the participants to 6 information questions about hypertension was 3.55±1.21.
 Conclusion: Although the theoretical knowledge of the participants is partially sufficient, it is a situation that should be questioned well what makes them think that they cannot follow up hypertension patients. This may be due to the fact that medical faculties do not give as much importance to practical education as theoretical courses. More emphasis should be placed on the follow-up of common diseases such as hypertension in medical education, and students should be trained on routine practical approaches.