Title : New step towards higher quality health education of primary hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Abstract:
Introduction: Hypertension, is a condition in which blood vessels have persistently raised pressure. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the body's resistance to insulin. “Setting an example” is health education principle depend upon role model health educator that is free from all modifiable risk factors. This research is conducted to assess the need for risk factors control and health promotion programme among medical students of Khartoum university to raise the quality of health education regarding hypertension and type 2 diabetes by setting role models for the community.
Method: cross sectional study included medical students who had been selected by multistage stratified random sampling. Students completed an online modified standardized questionnaire - which consists from 5 sections-and anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist circumference) were taken using standardized tools.
Results: A total of 391 medical students with a mean age of 21 ± 2.2 participated in the study. 279 (71.3%) of them were female. 43.8% of medical students were found to have positive first degree family history of hypertension. 33.8% emphasized daily consumption of 2 to 4 types of the highly salty food that had been assessed. 82% reported no moderate physical activity at all. 29% had high stress score, 19.5% were overweight and 8.5% were obese. Waist circumference was found to be more than or equal to 88cm in 47% of females and more than or equal to 102cm in 13.4% of males. 4% of medical students participated in this study were smokers, and the prevalence of smoking increased with the progression of academic levels (p value = 0.03). According to Leicester type2 diabetes risk score, 47.6% (n=186) had increased risk for DM, 17.9% (n=70) had moderate risk for diabetes, and 1.5% (n=6) had high risk for DM. Students from third to six year had significantly higher percentages of increased diabetes risk score than students in first and second years of study (p= .001).
Conclusions: Medical students who will be the doctors and health educators of the near future showed a very poor practice towards control of hypertension and type 2 diabetes risk factors in spite of their high knowledge about these diseases. This make us lose important principle of health education which is “setting an example” for the community. In addition to the effect on their life quality.
Recommendation: Hypertension and type 2 diabetes integrated risk factors control and health promotion programme is recommended to be applied among medical students of Khartoum university to raise the quality of health education regarding these two diseases. Moreover, other medical schools should assess for the need of a such programme.
Audience Take Away Notes
- The idea of developing strategies to increase the quality of health education and counselling as well will be highlighted for all the audience
- The concept of risk factors control and health promotion programme in medical schools will be of a high benefit for faculties Deans to give their students the opportunity of being role models for the community. In addition to this, I will present important points about how to apply this integrated programme in medical schools
- The design of this study and the detailed sections of the questionnaire can be a very good base to assess for the need of a such programme in other medical schools by researchers
