Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Effect of educational intervention on the knowledge of rabies among medical school students of Chennai

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Aravind Manoharan
. Vinoth Gnana Chellaiyan
. M. Madhusudan

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

Health education
intervention
medical students
rabies
1. World Health Organization. Rabies. Available from: http://www.
who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/. [Last accessed on
2017 Nov 09].
2. World Health Organization. WHO Expert Consultation on Rabies.
Second Report. Technical Report Series No. 982. Geneva: World
Health Organization; 2013.
3. World Health Organization. Rabies Vaccines: WHO position
paper. Wkly Epidemiol Record 2010;85:309‑20.
4. Sudarshan MK, Mahendra BJ, Madhusudana SN,
Ashwoath NarayanaDH, RahmanA, RaoNS, etal. An epidemiological
study of animal bites in India: Results of a WHO sponsored national
multi‑centric rabies survey. J Commun Dis 2006;38:32‑9.
5. Sudarshan MK, Madhusudana SN, Mahendra BJ, Rao NS,
Ashwath Narayana DH, Abdul Rahman S, et al. Assessing the
burden of human rabies in India: Results of a national multi‑center
epidemiological survey. Int J Infect Dis 2007;11:29‑35.
6. Rosner B. Fundamentals of Biostatistics. 4th ed. Boston, USA:
Duxbury Press; 1995. p. 221.
7. Praveen G, Rajashekar HK. Knowledge, awareness and perception
of medical college students on rabies and its prevention. Int J Med
Sci Public Health 2014;3:1484‑6.
8. Shashikantha SK, Sheethal MP, Shashank KJ. Awareness among
students of a medical college regarding management of animal
bite in Bijapur, Karnataka. Natl J Community Med 2017;8:421‑4.
9. Chowdhury R, Mukherjee A, Naskar S, Lahiri SK. A study on
knowledge of animal bite management and rabies immunization
among interns of a government medical college in Kolkata. Int J
Med Public Health 2013;3:17‑20.
10. Jana PK, Sarkar TK, Chellaiyan DV, Adhikary M, Jha SN. Rabies
menace and control – Knowledge, awareness, and practices
among patients in a tertiary care hospital in West Bengal. Int J
Med Sci Public Health 2017;6:1‑4.
11. Prakash M, Bhatti VK, Venkatesh G. Rabies menace and
control – An insight into knowledge, attitude and practices. Med
J Armed Forces India 2013;69:57‑60.
12. Sarkar A, Bhavsar S, Bundela C, Gohel A, Makwana N, Parmar D.
An assessment of knowledge of prevention and management
of Rabies in interns and final year students of Shri M. P. Shah
Government Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat. J Res Med Dent
Sci 2013;1:62‑6.
Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 9, Issue 10
October 2019
Pages 1-4

Home

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us