Abstract
In developing countries, education to health-care professionals is a cornerstone in the battle against neglected tropical diseases (NTD). Studies evaluating the level of knowledge of medical students in clinical and socio-demographic aspects of NTD are lacking. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted among students from a 7 year-curriculum medical school in Peru to assess their knowledge of NTD by using a pilot survey comprised by two blocks of 10 short questions. Block I consisted of socio-demographic and epidemiological questions whereas block II included clinical vignettes. Each correct answer had the value of 1 point. Out of 597 responders (response rate: 68.4%), 583 were considered to have valid surveys (male:female ratio: 1:1.01; mean age 21 years, SD ± 2.42). Total knowledge showed a raising trend through the 7-year curriculum. Clinical knowledge seemed to improve towards the end of medical school whereas socio-demographic and epidemiological concepts only showed progress the first 4 years of medical school, remaining static for the rest of the curricular years (p = 0.66). Higher mean scores in socio-demographic and epidemiological knowledge compared to clinical knowledge were seen in the first two years (p<0.001) whereas the last three years showed higher scores in clinical knowledge (p<0.001). In conclusion, students from this private medical school gained substantial knowledge in NTD throughout the career which seems to be related to improvement in clinical knowledge rather than to socio-demographic and epidemiological concepts. This study assures the feasibility of measuring the level of knowledge of NTD in medical students and stresses the importance of evaluating education on NTD as it may need more emphasis in epidemiological concepts, especially at developing countries such as Peru where many people are affected by these preventable and treatable diseases.
Highlights
The concept of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) is a set of disabling conditions that are the most common chronic infections in the poorest people [1,2]
This study provides an initial approach in measuring NTD knowledge in medical students and should encourage the development of further surveys that may help to evaluate existing NTD education programs, especially because current global health problems could benefit from students’ awareness at early stages of medical training
The situation is more striking in developing countries such as in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), where approximately 40% of people live below the poverty line [7,8] and the total disease burden of NTD may exceed those caused by malaria, tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS [5]
Summary
The concept of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) is a set of disabling conditions that are the most common chronic infections in the poorest people [1,2]. The situation is more striking in developing countries such as in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), where approximately 40% (of the estimated 556 million) of people live below the poverty line [7,8] and the total disease burden (measured in disability-adjusted life years -DALYs) of NTD may exceed those caused by malaria, tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS [5]. For these reasons, the control and elimination of NTD are recognized as priorities within the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and it targets for sustainable poverty reduction [9, 10]
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