Volume 25, Issue 118, December 2021

Awareness and perception of medical students of al-baha University regarding eye health

Ali Hendi Alghamdi¹, Aimun AE Ahmed^1,2, Amjad Yahya Ahmed Alzahrani¹, Mohammed Abdullah Ibrahim Alghamdi¹, Modi Fahd Nasser Al Qahtani¹, Osama Hassan Saleh Alghamdi¹, Manal Khalaf Ambarak Alzahrani¹, Osama Abdullah Hassan Alzahrani¹, Majed Abdulaziz Ibn Ahmed Alghamdi¹, Linda Saad Abdullah Thafid³, Mahadi Bashir^1♦

¹Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Al Baha University, KSA
²Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Omdurman Islamic University, Sudan
³Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Al Baha University, KSA

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Al Baha University, KSA

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The study aimed to assess the awareness and perception of Al Baha medical students towards; High altitude, Medications, Contact lenses, pregnancy, and Ultraviolet effects on eye health. Methods: The study was cross-sectional student-based involving both male and female medical students who fit the inclusion criteria. The online six-domain questionnaire was used in gathering the required data. Then the validity and reliability were checked, descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to determine the association between the required exposures and the outcomes in a form of Odd’s ratios the significance level was tested at p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: A-173 students through 7-medical academic years were enrolled in the study. More than half (55%) were males at the 6th-year academic level (30.6%) and two-third (39.3%) scored a very good Grade Point Average (GPA). Low level of awareness was observed among the males students at early and late academic levels regardless of their GPA scores towards High altitude (OR= -0.463, CI= -1.577- 0.562) and pregnancy (OR= -0.152, CI= -0.488- 0.184) effects on eye health, whilst high awareness level was attained towards the medications (OR= -0.301, CI= -1.287- 0.685) contact lens (OR= -16.029, CI= -39.095- 7.038) and Ultraviolet (OR= -51.895, CI= -147.689- 43.899) effects among female over male students. Conclusion: To conclude, the participants showed different awareness levels out of our expectations with respect to the effect of high altitude and pregnancy and high levels regarding medications, contact lens, and Ultraviolet effect on eye health.

Keywords: Medical Students, Eye Health, Awareness, High altitude, Medications, Contact lens, Pregnancy and Ultraviolet

Medical Science, 2021, 25(118), 3437-3445

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