Abstract

FLORES SENA, Christina  and  SAMALVIDES CUBA, Frine. Biosecurity knowledge among medical students in a Peruvian University. Rev Med Hered [online]. 2005, vol.16, n.4, pp.253-259. ISSN 1018-130X.

Objective: To determine the level of knowledge of blood-borne diseases and universal precautions of biosafety among medical students. Material and methods: During December 2004, medical students from fifth and seventh years were evaluated with a questionnaire about demographic data and specific information of knowledge in universal precautions and blood-borne diseases. Results: 197 questionnaires were collected, 96 belonged to medical students from fifth year and 100 belonged to interns. We found that 57% of interns obtained higher scores when compared to 23% of students (p<0.001) with a prevalence ratio of 1,79 (CI: 1.4 - 2.3). We also found that most of the students referring needlestick injuries (57%) had higher scores when compared with those who did not refer needlestick injuries (28%), however, no relationship was found between the higher score in our questionnaire with the academic rank. Conclusions: Most of the interns proved higher knowledge about biosafety and universal precautions, we also observed a relationship between higher scores and the prior occurrence of needlestick injuries. We demonstrated that, being student predicts poor knowledge about biosafety compared to being intern.(Rev Med Hered 2005;16:253-259).

Keywords : Needlestick injuries; medical students; knowledge; universal precautions.

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