Knowledge of childhood asthma among final year medical and pharmacy students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess and compare the knowledge of childhood asthma between final year medical and pharmacy students in Universiti Sains Malaysia and identify areas of weakness so that future education programmes could be improved. A validated asthma knowledge questionnaire was distributed to all final year medical and pharmacy students following a lecture session. Verbal consent was obtained and filing of questionnaires was voluntary. Each question is given a maximum score of one giving a total maximum score of 31. The mean score of medical students 23.4 (95% CI 22.8- 24.0) was significantly better than that of pharmacy students 20.3 (95% CI 19.5-21.0). Medical students performed better than pharmacy students in 12 questions. Pharmacy students performed better than medical students in only two questions. However only 44.6% of medical students and 20.0% of pharmacy students knew that infection is a common trigger of childhood asthma. In therapeutic questions only 30.1% medical students and 6.7% of pharmacy students could name two preventive medications, and 49.4 % of medical students and 44.3 % of pharmacy students thought that salbutamol could damage the heart. Only 18.1% medical students and 16.7% of pharmacy students knew the management of exercise induced asthma. Even though medical students' knowledge of childhood asthma was significantly better than pharmacy students, several areas of deficient knowledge were identified in both groups, especially regarding trigger factors and preventive medications of asthma. More emphasis should probably placed in these areas in the medical and pharmacy curriculum.