title: Compulsory teaching of occupational health: impact on attitude of medical students in Brazil and Germany.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess medical students' attitude toward occupational health (OH) in Brazil and Germany before and after a compulsory OH course.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire regarding the attitude toward OH was completed by medical students at the beginning of the OH teaching term at the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil (n = 79), and at both medical schools in Munich, Germany (n = 266), in 2009/2010. The change in the assessed qualities over the course period was measured repeating the survey at the end of the teaching term (n = 193; 56%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, attitude toward OH was relatively low in both countries (mean 3.0 ± SD 1.2 on a scale from 1 = very low to 6 = very high) and students did not consider OH as a career option. However, Brazilian medical students rated the importance of OH statistically significantly higher than German medical students. Students in both countries considered their knowledge of OH low (2.2 ± 0.9). Not only self-assessed knowledge of OH (mean difference 1.5; 95% confidence interval 1.3-1.6) but also interest in OH (mean difference 0.2; 95% CI 0.06-0.4) improved statistically significantly over the teaching term.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A negative attitude toward OH accompanied by little knowledge of OH seems to be a global problem. However, we have shown that this might be improved through adequate training in OH. The long-term effect still needs to be evaluated. Nevertheless, our results are promising and should encourage medical schools around the globe to include OH as a compulsory subject in medical training.
authors: Unit for Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology and Net Teaching, Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany. sekretariat-radon@med.lmu.de
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Russ
authors: Stephanie
authors: S
authors: Strümpell
authors: Denise
authors: D
authors: Carvalho
authors: Sabrina
authors: S
authors: Zander
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Smits
authors: Dennis
authors: D
authors: Nowak
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Radon
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