Abstract

Background: The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has been increasing substantially in developing and developed nations during the last decade. Cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by educating the public and providing training opportunities to medical doctors and other healthcare workers, including medical students. Objective: This study aimed to assess pre-clinical (third-year) and clinical (fifth- and sixth-years) medical students’ knowledge of CVD risk factors and compare the level of knowledge between students in their pre-clinical and clinical years. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of the knowledge of CVD risk factors was distributed among female pre-clinical and clinical medical students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah between September 2016 and April 2017. The questionnaire was adopted from a study in Croatia. Targets used were based upon the 2016 European guidelines on CVD prevention. Knowledge scores were computed and used to estimate the knowledge score percent. The chi-square test was applied to test for factors associated with knowledge of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Results: We recruited 259 female medical students: third-year, 109 (42.1%); fifth-year, 75 (29.0%); and sixth-year, 75 (29.0%). Students in the pre-clinical year were more knowledgeable of target low-density lipoprotein levels in diabetic patients than those in other study groups (p-value = 0.030). A significantly higher proportion of fifth- (36%) and sixth-year (38%) students were knowledgeable about arterial blood pressure values in high-risk persons (p-value = 0.001). Sixth-year medical students were more also aware of the rate of mortality due to CVD in KSA (81%) than other groups (p-value = 0.0001). Moreover, sixth-year medical students were more knowledgeable about medication prescription (64%) than fifth-year (48%) and third-year students (45%) (p-value = 0.015). Approximately 36% of sixth-year medical students compared with 22.2% of those of the third year had sufficient knowledge of the risk factors for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases (p-value=0.045). Conclusion: Overall, clinical year students had a better understanding of CVD risk factors than those in the pre-clinical year, although they were insufficiently aware of CVD risk factors. Medical education on CVD prevention should therefore be substantially improved at the Faculty of Medicine of King Abdulaziz University.