Abstract
Background Earlier studies suggest that knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among healthcare workers in Nigeria is low. This present study assessed the knowledge of Nigerian final year medical students about symptoms of ASD and some other aspects of ASD. This is a cross sectional descriptive study that drew a total of seven hundred and fifty-seven (757) final year medical students from ten (10) randomly selected fully accredited medical schools out of a total of twenty-seven (27) fully accredited medical schools in Nigeria. Sociodemographic and Knowledge about Childhood Autism among Health Workers (KCAHW) questionnaires were used to assess knowledge of final year medical students about ASD and obtain demographic information.ResultsOnly few, 218 (28.8 %) of the 757 final year medical students had seen and participated in evaluation and management of at least a child with ASD during their clinical postings in pediatrics and psychiatry. Knowledge and recognition of symptoms of ASD is observed to be better among this group of final year medical students as shown by higher mean scores in the four domains of KCAHW questionnaire. Knowledge about ASD varies across gender and regions. Misconceptions about ASD were also observed among the final year medical students.ConclusionsMore focus needs to be given to ASD in the curriculum of Nigerian undergraduate medical students, especially during their psychiatry and pediatric clinical postings.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1433-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Earlier studies suggest that knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among healthcare workers in Nigeria is low
This study examined the knowledge of Nigerian final year medical students about various symptoms and signs of ASD and their knowledge on some other aspects of ASD
Seven hundred and fifty-seven (757) final year medical students drawn from ten (10) out of a total of twentyseven (27) fully accredited medical schools across Nigeria were involved in the study [8]
Summary
Earlier studies suggest that knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among healthcare workers in Nigeria is low This present study assessed the knowledge of Nigerian final year medical students about symptoms of ASD and some other aspects of ASD. The medical school curriculum in Nigeria is regulated by Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and is uniform across fully accredited Medical Schools, with mild variation of few days in clinical posting duration for special clinical postings like Psychiatry, Anesthesia, ENT among others These final year medical students in a couple of few months, would find themselves practicing as Interns at various levels of healthcare facilities like Primary, Secondary and Tertiary and may need to diagnose suspected cases of ASD, if they see one in the course of their practice. Lack of adequate knowledge about ASD among physicians has been associated with late diagnosis of ASD [7]
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