Chagas disease - related educational intervention in medical science students

Abstract

Introduction: Chagas disease has ceased as a public health problem only for Latin America to become a disease of worldwide relevance. Cuba shows favorable conditions for proliferation of the disease, so, a high level of knowledge concerning this disease it would be successful to prevent the spread of the disease. Objective: to characterize the impact of Chagas disease - related educational intervention in medical science students at the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Las Tunas, Cuba. Method: quasi-experimental study, before-after type and no control group. We worked with the total of the personnel surveyed (46 persons made up the universe), using variables such as socio-demographic characteristics of the population, level of knowledge about the concept and disease generalities, conceptualization and epidemiological importance of the disease for our country, using descriptive statistics to process the information. Results: knowledge in concepts and generalities of the disease increased in 93.5%, as well as the epidemiological importance of the disease for our country was at 91.4%. Conclusions: The application of the educational intervention showed a favorable impact on the students, increasing their level of knowledge concerning the Chagas disease and its epidemiological importance in our territory. It provides general knowledge to our future health professionals.

Keywords

• enfermedad de chagas
• factores de riesgo triatoma
• tripanosoma cruzi