Knowledge and attitude toward hearing impairment and vestibular disorders among medical students of north India

Abstract

Research studies have indicated that there is lack of awareness regarding the adverse effects of hearing loss and vestibular disorder among health professionals and upcoming medical students. So, there is a need to upgrade these professionals and train them which will turn result in proper referrals and better implementation hearing related programs in a health care set-up. Audiologists play a vital role in spreading awareness regarding their role and scope of practice, so they need to initially know the status and level of awareness and knowledge regarding hearing loss and vestibular disorder among the medical students. The present research is being conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude among medical students across various range of hospital set up in northern India regarding hearing loss, vestibular disorder & assessment procedures available. As, these medical students are going to become a qualified physician, henceforth its very necessary that the students have the basic knowledge and must be aware regarding the role of an audiologist/speech language pathologist. A questionnaire-based study (online survey) of 22 questions was adopted from similar kind of studies and was framed with the aim to assess the knowledge and attitude among allied health professionals regrading hearing loss and vestibular disorder. A total of 226 medical students from government and private medical colleges spread across Northern India participated in the present study. The outcome of the present study reveals positive result indicating that participants had good knowledge and attitude towards the basic areas related to hearing loss and vestibular disorders. However, there some drawbacks in certain areas which has be corrected with proper training and knowledge.