Exploring knowledge, attitudes and readiness to practice toward disaster medicine and preparedness among university health profession students in Sana'a city, Yemen

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Disasters can influence public health and the socioeconomic status of affected populations. Preparedness plans are a cluster of actions taken in advance to mitigate potential disasters and effectively cope with their negative consequences. Yemen is frequently vulnerable to both human-made and natural disasters. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge (K), attitude (A), and readiness to practice (rP) levels regarding disaster medicine and preparedness among health profession students in both public and private universities in Sanaa, city, capital of Yemen. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate 420 medical, pharmacy, and health sciences students� KArP levels using validated self-administered disaster medicine and preparedness questionnaire. The Chi-square test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regressions, were used at an alpha level of 0. 05. RESULTS: The study revealed that most of the health profession students had a moderate knowledge, attitude, readiness to practice, and total KArP scores. The study also found that difference in the mean KArP between the sexes was significant (P < 0.05). Students from the public universities had significantly higher knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice scores and total KArP scores than those from private universities (P < 0.05). Moreover, K, A, and rP scores were significantly associated with overall KArP scores. Overall, Knowledge and attitude factors were significant predictors of readiness to practice (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Health profession student from Sana�a Universities had moderate positive attitudes toward readiness to practice disaster medicine preparedness. Nevertheless, its highly recommended that health collages and policymakers of health system should have a solid curricula and training programs in disaster medicine management and preparedness to build competent healthcare professionals for the victims of natural and human-made disasters.