Comparison of different medical programs students’ knowledge on hypertension and its treatment

K Hudhra, Z Thanasi. American University of Tirana, Pharmacy, Albania

Aim of the study:

The prevalence of hypertension was 31.8% in a study conducted in Tirana in 2001. One of the strategic priorities of WHO concerning cardiovascular diseases is raising the capacities, especially for developing countries, for fulfilling the needs of the healthcare system. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the level of knowledge of Albanian students from different programs of the Medical Faculty on hypertension and its treatment.

Method:

63 students (70% females) of the second and third year in the Medical Faculty (Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Laboratory Technician) of the American University of Tirana participated in the study. Through answering a questionnaire (16 questions) we took data to evaluate their level of knowledge on hypertension and its treatment. Gender, age and the medical program in which they were enrolled were recorded and Chi-square test was used for data analysis.

Results:

The response rate was 97%. It resulted that age and gender did not influence in their level of knowledge, but there were differences between students of different programs. The students with the highest rate of exact answers were pharmacy (13.5/16) and dentistry (13.2/16) students. There were no big differences among students’ knowledge from physiotherapy and laboratory technician (9.04/16 and 9/16 respectively) whereas the lowest results were in nursing students (8.2/16). Conclusions and discussion:

The deepest knowledge of pharmacy and dentistry students about hypertension and its treatment may be explained with the greater number of teaching hours in pharmacology and pharmacotherapy in these programs. Further studies are needed to establish the most appropriate methods for teaching and learning of diseases such as hypertension and their treatment.