Knowledge and Awareness Regarding Poison Information Centre among Medical Students

Background

Every year, about half a million people die world-wide due to poisoning. A poison information center is a specialized unit that advises on or assists with, the prevention, diagnosis and management of poisoning. Currently, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology subject has been taught in 2^nd MBBS in India but topic of poison information centre is usually not given importance at undergraduate level and due to this reason we undertook present study to assess knowledge and awareness of 2^nd MBBS students regarding poison information centre.

Materials and Methods

Total 145 medical students of 2^nd MBBS were exposed to pre-tested and pre-validated Likert scale type questionnaire regarding knowledge and awareness of poison information centre after obtaining their informed written consent. Data obtained were analyzed via median score and tabulated.

Results

Most of the students were heard the term of poison information centre which many students were not sure that poisons are detected by poison information centre. Almost all students had poor knowledge and awareness regarding functions, location, role of poison information centre. Almost none had visited poison information centre ever neither they knew the concept of poison information centre.

Conclusion

Knowledge and awareness regarding poison information centre is very poor among 2^nd MBBS students which in turn may lead to poor utilization of facilities provided by poison information centre in future.