Knowledge and Attitude towards Vitiligo and Psoriasis among Undergraduate Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Understanding the perspective on vitiligo and psoriasis of undergraduate medical students enables us to focus on lacunae areas in their knowledge, and train them to disseminate accurate information to the public. A positive attitude towards vitiligo and psoriasis in society will reduce the psychosocial burden on the patients and deliver better clinical outcomes. Aim: To assess medical student’s knowledge and attitudes towards vitiligo and psoriasis. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, observational study was conducted on 351 undergraduate medical students (third semester onwards) at Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar, Karnataka, India, from January 2021 to March 2021. Questionnaire consisted of 28 questions about knowledge and 18 about attitude towards vitiligo and psoriasis, presented through Google docs to the medical students. A score of 75% was considered as having ‘good knowledge’ and ‘positive attitude.’ Fischer’s-exact test was used as a test of significance for qualitative data. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used as a test of significance to identify the mean difference between more than two quantitative variables. The p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The study included 351 participants, of which 171 (48.7%) were females and 180 (51.3%) were males. There were 89 (25.3%), 133 (37.9%), and 129 (36.8%) respondents from the second, third, and fourth years, respectively. Good knowledge was observed in 80.9% and 71.5%, and 87.7% and 72.4% had positive attitudes towards vitiligo and psoriasis, respectively. A statistically significant difference (p-value=0.002) was found in attitude between vitiligo and the year of MBBS. A statistically significant difference (p-value=0.004) was found in knowledge between psoriasis and the year of MBBS. Overall, 55.84% thought that psoriasis only concerns the skin. Good knowledge was directly proportional to a positive attitude. Conclusion: The majority of the undergraduate medical students had ‘good knowledge’ and ‘positive attitude’ towards vitiligo and psoriasis. Good knowledge was highly proportional to a positive attitude. Unfortunately, a considerably high number of participants reported that they would not marry a person with vitiligo or psoriasis.

Keywords

• behaviour
• education
• psychosocial
• stigma
• treatment