Level of knowledge in medical emergencies among medical students of peruvian universities

Objectives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge about medical emergencies of medical students from eleven Peruvian universities. Materials and methods. Multicenter, cross-sectional study, conducted between 2007- 2008. We used a nominal response, self-administered questionnaire with socio-educational questions and ten multiple choice questions on medical emergencies. We obtained a nonrandom sample of participants enrolled in universities. We obtained the chi2, crude and adjusted ORs with 95% confidence intervals and ulterior multivariate analysis. Results. 2,109 medical students participated, the average age was 21 years (range: 15-32), 51% were males. 53% had taken a previous course related to medical emergencies. 60.4% failed the questionnaire, the average score was 4.95 over a maximum of 10 points and 5.9% obtained between 8-10 points. We found a strong association between the university of origin (OR: 0.45, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.54), the academic stage (OR: 1.55, 95% CI 1.28 to 1.87), when they received the course about subject (OR: 0.62, 95% CI 0.50-0.77) and gender (OR: 1.38, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.65). Conclusions. Knowledge of medical emergencies in the students of the eleven evaluated universities is not good, and we suggest the need of evaluating and improving the practical training offered by universities on issues regarding the management of medical emergencies.