Volume 24, Issue 106, November - December, 2020

Healthcare students’ perception about mental illnesses– A cross-sectional study

Muhammad Zahid Iqbal¹, Ahmed A. Albassam², Ziyad S. Almalki², Salah-Ud-Din Khan³, Muhammad Shahid Iqbal^2♦

¹Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, 08100, Bedong, Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia
²Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-kharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia.
³Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-kharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia; Email: m.javed@psau.edu.sa

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study evaluated perceptions of healthcare students of a university regarding mental illnesses (MIs). Methods: The convenience sampling method was adopted to target the study participants and to obtain the data. A self-developed and validated research questionnaire was used to collect the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. Results: A total of 284 students from three healthcare faculties were involved in the study. Around 95 (33.5%) students were from the faculty of medicine, 94 (33.1%) from the faculty of pharmacy, and 95 (33.5%) were from faculty of dentistry who participated in the study. Out of 284 study participants, females were 180 (63.4%), and males were 104 (36.6%). The majority of the respondents (>60%) had an appropriate perception of MIs. Conclusion: This study observed proper awareness and positive perception of MIs among healthcare university students.

Keywords: mental illnesses, MIs, healthcare, students, university

Medical Science, 2020, 24(106), 3835-3844

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