Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Department of Community Medicine, DM Wayanad Institute of Medical Sciences, Wayanad, Kerala, India
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although rabies is highly fatal, with timely and correct postexposure prophylaxis (PEP)
of animal bite victims, it could be prevented. Medical school students should be trained about the
appropriate rabies management during their formative years so that they put the right practice later
on. The study was conducted to assess the knowledge about rabies epidemiology and prophylaxis
among medical students and to find the effect of an educational intervention.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a quasi‑experimental study conducted with 156 third
academic year medical school students at a tertiary care teaching hospital. The study participants
were given health education intervention. A study tool assessed the knowledge of study participants
on domains such as epidemiology of rabies, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and PEP, and national
program guidelines of rabies prevention. The study tool was administered before and after the
intervention. The impact of educational intervention was measured with scores. Wilcoxon signed‑rank
test was applied to test the difference.
RESULTS: The overall total mean pretest total score was 14.9 (±3.7) and posttest score was
22.7 (±3.23) for a maximum score of 29. The mean pretest scores for epidemiology, PrEP and PEP
and national program components were 6.09, 7.95, and 0.85 respectively. Likewise, the mean posttest
scores were 8.09, 13.26, and 1.35 respectively. There were a statistically significant improvement
in the scores after health education intervention.
CONCLUSIONS: After educational intervention, there were statistically significant improvement in
the scores of all the three domains. PrEP and PEP and national program domain of rabies need to
be emphasized during formative years.
Keywords
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