Assessing disparities in medical students' knowledge and attitude about monkeypox: a cross-sectional study of 27 countries across three continents.
Samar Abd ElHafeez, Assem Gebreal, Mohammad Adnan Khalil, Naglaa Youssef, Malik Sallam, Abdelhamid Elshabrawy, Suzan Abdel-Rahman, Amira Saad Mahboob, Saja Yazbek, Eman H Elbanna, Riddhi Adhyaru, Zarin Nudar Rodoshi, Yap Siew Kih, Huda Jawad, Evangelos Kolotouros, Arkadiusz Jaworski, Ghadah AlQarni, Mohammad Gablan, Alexandra Condurat, Ahmed El-Sayed Said Nour Elden, Oumayma Bennani, Kamna Rawat, Areeba Ismail, Yasser Al-Hajj, Nafisa M K Elehamer, Jasleen Nagi, Habtamu Admassu, Saja Hassan Al Asaad, Ruthwik Duvuru, Olaoluwaposi Ogunlana, Bandar Alosaimi, Ramy Mohamed Ghazy
Author Information
Samar Abd ElHafeez: Department of Epidemiology, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Assem Gebreal: Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Mohammad Adnan Khalil: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh Second Health Cluster, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Naglaa Youssef: Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, College of Nursing, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Malik Sallam: Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Abdelhamid Elshabrawy: Department of Biostatistics and Demography, Faculty of Graduate Studies for Statistical Research, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Suzan Abdel-Rahman: Department of Biostatistics and Demography, Faculty of Graduate Studies for Statistical Research, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Amira Saad Mahboob: Tropical Health Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Saja Yazbek: Faculty of Public Health, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
Eman H Elbanna: Tropical Health Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Riddhi Adhyaru: David Tvildiani Medical University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Zarin Nudar Rodoshi: Mymensingh Medical College and Hospital, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
Yap Siew Kih: Taylor's University School of Medicine, Subang Jaya, Malaysia.
Huda Jawad: College of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Bahrain, Manama, Bahrain.
Evangelos Kolotouros: Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Arkadiusz Jaworski: Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
Ghadah AlQarni: College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad Gablan: Faculty of Medicine, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Alexandra Condurat: University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Grigore T. Popa", Iași, Romania.
Ahmed El-Sayed Said Nour Elden: Department of Basic Medical and Dental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Zarqa University, Zarqa, Jordan.
Oumayma Bennani: Faculty Mohammed VI of Medicine and Pharmacy, Oujda, Morocco.
Kamna Rawat: Government Doon Medical College, Dehradun, India.
Areeba Ismail: Department of Medicine, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Yasser Al-Hajj: Faculty of Medicine, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon.
Nafisa M K Elehamer: Faculty of Public and Environmental Health, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan.
Jasleen Nagi: Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Habtamu Admassu: Addis Ababa University CMHS, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Saja Hassan Al Asaad: Faculty of Medicine, Syrian Private University, Damascus, Syria.
Ruthwik Duvuru: College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Olaoluwaposi Ogunlana: College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Bandar Alosaimi: Research Center, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh Second Health Cluster, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ramy Mohamed Ghazy: Tropical Health Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Background and aims: The recent monkeypox (Mpox) outbreak confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores the importance of evaluating the knowledge and attitude of medical students toward emerging diseases, given their potential roles as healthcare professionals and sources of public information during outbreaks. This study aimed to assess medical students' knowledge and attitude about Mpox and to identify factors affecting their level of knowledge and attitude in low-income and high-income countries. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 11,919 medical students from 27 countries. A newly-developed validated questionnaire was used to collect data on knowledge (14 items), attitude (12 items), and baseline criteria. The relationship between a range of factors with knowledge and attitude was studied using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: 46% of the study participants were males; 10.7% were in their sixth year; 54.6% knew about smallpox; 84% received the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine; and 12.5% had training on Mpox. 55.3% had good knowledge of Mpox and 51.7% had a positive attitude towards it. Medical students in their third, fifth, or sixth year high- income countries who obtained information on Mpox from friends, research articles, social media and scientific websites were positive predictors for good knowledge. Conversely, being male or coming from high-income countries showed a negative relation with good knowledge about Mpox. Additionally, a positive attitude was directly influenced by residing in urban areas, being in the fifth year of medical education, having knowledge about smallpox and a history of receiving the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine. Receiving information about Mpox from social media or scientific websites and possessing good knowledge about Mpox were also predictors of a positive attitude. On the other hand, being male, employed, or receiving a training program about Mpox were inversely predicting positive attitude about Mpox. Conclusion: There were differences in knowledge and attitude towards Mpox between medical students in low and high-income countries, emphasizing the need for incorporating epidemiology of re-emerging diseases like Mpox into the medical curriculum to improve disease prevention and control.
