Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Medical Cannabis of Bachelor’s Degree Students
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Abstract
Given the growing demand for medical cannabis (MC) use across the globe, knowledge and attitude assessment is imperative to give the formal education related to MC use for undergraduate students in the university. It is expected to prevent the cannabis use for recreational purposes or abuse treatment. Therefore, this study assessed those two aspects regarding MC use among students with medical and non-medical backgrounds and their associated factors. Material and Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 393 undergraduate students from health sciences (n = 86), pure sciences and technology (n = 124), and social sciences and humanities (n = 183). A quota-sampling was employed to select study subjects in proportion to the study population of each faculty. The inclusion criteria were as follows: 1) undergraduate students in the academic year of 2020, 2) consent to participate in this study, and 3) able to read and understand the Thai language and data collection process. Subjects who were unable to complete the questionnaire were excluded. Descriptive statistics were used to report participant characteristics and scores for knowledge and attitudes towards MC, while ANOVA was used to determine whether the scores for knowledge and attitudes regarding MC differed among the three study fields. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to assess the impact of demographic factors on knowledge and attitudes scores. Results: Students in health sciences had higher knowledge scores than those in the other two fields (F = 23.34, p < 0.01). Conversely, students in health sciences had lower attitude scores than those in the other two fields (F = 5.51, p < 0.01). Multiple regression analyses showed that older students and those in the health sciences field had higher knowledge scores than younger students and those in the other two fields, whereas female, second- and third-year students, and those of non-cannabis users, and in health sciences field had lower attitude scores than male and first-year students, and those of previous cannabis users and in the other two fields. Conclusions: Therefore, students in health sciences had better knowledge, but their attitudes were lower than those in the other two fields. Ample formal MC training should be included in the study curricula and field practice. However, these findings should be reinvestigated in the general Thai population.
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