Attitude and practice of medical students in Khartoum state toward advocacy as a core component of medical professionalism 2022
 
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1
Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum University, Sudan
 
2
Faculty of Medicine, Ibn Sinna University, Sudan
 
 
Publication date: 2023-04-27
 
 
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A1581
 
ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Advocacy is a strategic, evidence-based process to promote human health by addressing social, economic, environmental and political determinants of health. Many medical organizations have declared advocacy as a core component of medical professionalism. The study aimed to determine the attitude and the practice of medical students in Khartoum state toward advocacy. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study at Khartoum State. Clustered sampling was used to select six universities, and stratified sampling was used to select an equal number of participants per batch. A simple random technique was used to determine study participants per university. We collected the data through a self-administered online questionnaire with six sections. The Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) 29 was used to analyze the data. We measured frequencies, percentages and univariate associations between demographics, attitude and practice scores, Kruskal Wallis H, Mann-Whitney U and Chai square tests to measure the associations between the different variables. Results: We received a total of 473 responses. The median attitude score of health advocacy was 48.00, determinants of health advocacy were 35.00, advocacy inclusion in medical education was 22.00, and of practice was 2.00. Moreover, 42.9% of the participants agreed and 40.8% strongly agreed on including health policy in medical curriculum. Approximately 51% agreed and 52.4% strongly agreed that they should be engaged meaningfully in health policy development. Only 28.3% agreed and 12.7% strongly agreed on considering health advocacy as a future line. The most common advocacy barrier among medical students was lack of Knowledge, with 267 (56.4%) responses. Conclusions: Medical students need to be well-empowered to excel as an advocate from the early stages of their medical studies. Medical schools and health policymakers should promote more for the importance of advocacy among medical students more and engage them meaningfully in their advocacy actions.
ISSN:2654-1459
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