The Relationship between Knowledge and Attitude Toward Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Associated Factors Among 6th Year Medical Students at Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To study factors affecting knowledge and attitude of the 6th year medical students at Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital towards Autism Spectrum Disorder and correlations between their knowledge and attitude.
Methods: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using questionnaire to evaluate knowledge and attitude toward autism spectrum disorder. Index of consistency was evaluated by specialized professionals. The data was obtained from the online questionnaires by the 6th year medical students at Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital during the academic year of 2021. The Pearson correlation was used to evaluate correlations between knowledge and attitude.
Results: 181 questionnaires were distributed to the 6th year medical students and 81(46.4%) of them were completed. The mean knowledge score was 12.69 out of 18 (70.5%) while the mean attitude score was 25.58 out of 33 (77.52%). The correlation coefficient between knowledge and attitude was 0.276 (p < 0.05). The knowledge about treatment was associated with increased overall attitude scores. The significantly associated factor related to the attitude was being female.
Conclusions: Knowledge and attitude towards autistic spectrum disorder of the 6th year medical students were significantly correlated, being female was a statistically significant factor affecting attitude.
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