title: Knowledge levels and training needs of disaster medicine among health professionals, medical students, and local residents in Shanghai, China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Disaster is a serious public health issue. Health professionals and community residents are main players in disaster responses but their knowledge levels of disaster medicine are not readily available. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge levels and training needs of disaster medicine among potential disaster responders and presented a necessity to popularize disaster medicine education.
  
  
  METHODS
  A self-reporting questionnaire survey on knowledge level and training needs of disaster medicine was conducted in Shanghai, China, in 2012. A total of randomly selected 547 health professionals, 456 medical students, and 1,526 local residents provided intact information. The total response rate was 93.7%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 1.3% of these participants have received systematic disaster medicine training. News media (87.1%) was the most common channel to acquire disaster medicine knowledge. Although health professionals were more knowledgeable than community residents, their knowledge structure of disaster medicine was not intact. Medical teachers were more knowledgeable than medical practitioners and health administrators (p = 0.002). Clinicians performed better than public health physicians (p<0.001), whereas public health students performed better than clinical medical students (p<0.001). In community residents, education background significantly affected the knowledge level on disaster medicine (p<0.001). Training needs of disaster medicine were generally high among the surveyed. 'Lecture' and 'practical training' were preferred teaching methods. The selected key and interested contents on disaster medicine training were similar between health professionals and medical students, while the priorities chosen by local residents were quite different from health professionals and medical students (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Traditional clinical-oriented medical education might lead to a huge gap between the knowledge level on disaster medicine and the current needs of disaster preparedness. Continuing medical education and public education plans on disaster medicine via media should be practice-oriented, and selectively applied to different populations and take the knowledge levels and training needs into consideration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Xiaojie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Yibo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Yifang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Guangwen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003710:Demography; D054597:Disaster Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004501:Education, Medical; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult