title: Change in Medical Student Attitudes Toward Patients with Substance Use Disorders After Course Exposure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Negative physician attitudes toward patients with substance use disorders (SUD) pose a significant barrier to treatment. This study tests the overall and intra-individual change in attitudes of second year medical students after exposure to a 15 hour SUD course.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two cohorts of second year medical students (2014 and 2015) responded to an anonymous 13-item previously published survey exploring personal views regarding patients with SUD using a four-point Likert scale. Students were surveyed one day before and up to one month after course completion. Survey items were grouped into the following categories: treatment optimism/confidence in intervention, moralism, and stereotyping. The Wilcoxon nonparametric signed-rank test (α=0.05) was used to compare the pre- and post- survey responses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 2014 and 2015 respectively, 118 and 120 students participated in the SUD course with pre- and post-response rates of 89.0% and 75.4% in 2014 and 95.8% and 97.5% in 2015. Of the 13 survey questions, paired responses to eight questions showed a statistically significant positive change in attitudes with a medium (d = 0.5) to large effect size (d = 0.8). Items focused on treatment optimism and confidence in treatment intervention reflected a positive attitude change, as did items associated with stereotyping and moralism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results support the hypothesis that exposure to a course on SUD was associated with positive change in medical students' attitudes toward patients with SUD.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. mkoyi1@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Makeida B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Koyi
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Archana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nelliot
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: MacKinnon
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Darius A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rastegar
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fingerhood
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Anika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alvanzo
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Karin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Neufeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013337:Students, Medical; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitude of health personnel; Medical education; Substance-related disorders