Do you think it%26apos;s a disease? A survey of medical students

作者：Erueti Chrissy^*; Glasziou Paul; Del Mar Chris; van Driel Mieke L

来源：BMC Medical Education, 2012, 12: 19.

DOI：10.1186/1472-6920-12-19

Background: The management of medical conditions is influenced by whether clinicians regard them as %26quot;disease%26quot; or %26quot;not a disease%26quot;. The aim of the survey was to determine how medical students classify a range of conditions they might encounter in their professional lives and whether a different name for a condition would influence their decision in the categorisation of the condition as a %26apos;disease%26apos; or %26apos;not a disease%26apos;. %26lt;br%26gt;Methods: We surveyed 3 concurrent years of medical students to classify 36 candidate conditions into %26quot;disease%26quot; and %26quot;non-disease%26quot;. The conditions were given a %26apos;medical%26apos; label and a (lay) label and positioned where possible in alternate columns of the survey. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: The response rate was 96% (183 of 190 students attending a lecture): 80% of students concurred on 16 conditions as %26quot;disease%26quot; (eg diabetes, tuberculosis), and 4 as %26quot;non-disease%26quot; (eg baldness, menopause, fractured skull and heat stroke). The remaining 16 conditions (with 21-79% agreement) were more contentious (especially obesity, infertility, hay fever, alcoholism, and restless leg syndrome). Three pairs of conditions had both a more, and a less, medical label: the more medical labels (myalgic encephalomyelitis, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction) were more frequently classified as %26apos;disease%26apos; than the less medical (chronic fatigue syndrome, high blood pressure, and impotence), respectively, significantly different for the first two pairs. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Some conditions excluded from the classification of %26quot;disease%26quot; were unexpected (eg fractured skull and heat stroke). Students were mostly concordant on what conditions should be classified as %26quot;disease%26quot;. They were more likely to classify synonyms as %26apos;disease%26apos; if the label was medical. The findings indicate there is still a problem 30 years on in the concept of %26apos;what is a disease%26apos;. Our findings suggest that we should be addressing such concepts to medical students.

• 出版日期2012-4-3