title: Stethoscope Hygiene: Practice and Attitude of Medical Students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency and attitude of medical students towards cleaning their stethoscopes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was carried out in the first week of December 2013. The study included 771 students (397 in their fourth and 374 in their sixth year) from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to students before the start of compulsory lessons in classrooms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  317 of the 397 fourth-year students (79.8%) and 306 of the 374 sixth-year students (81.9%) cleaned their stethoscope. The stethoscope diaphragm was most commonly cleaned, while the flexible tubing was the least commonly cleaned area, mainly using ethyl alcohol-based agents. The strongest positive attitude was observed for the statement 'It is important that my stethoscope is clean' (4.3 out of 5.0). A positive correlation (Spearman's x03C1; = 0.105) was observed between a higher frequency of cleaning and the stronger positive notion that a stethoscope should be cleaned.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A considerably high proportion of the students studied had ever cleaned their stethoscopes. Based on the students' responses, it would be useful to implement instructions on stethoscope hygiene in the regular practical curriculum with the aim of applying stethoscope disinfection in daily work.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gazibara
authors.forename: Sanja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Radovanovic
authors.forename: Gorica
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maric
authors.forename: Biljana
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rancic
authors.forename: Darija
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kisic-Tepavcevic
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pekmezovic
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004203:Disinfection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055771:Serbia; D019023:Stethoscopes; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*