Özet:

Heart failure is an important health problem with a rising prevalence all over the world due to the increase of aging population and comorbidities. Unfortunately, there may be delays in detecting symptoms and initiating appropriate treatment. Therefore, it is of great importance that physicians in all departments should have sufficient knowledge and awareness of heart failure. This is the first study in our country to evaluate the kwowledge and awareness levels on heart failure among medical students. The socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and knowledge and awareness on the definition of heart failure, its causes, signs and symptoms, complications, treatment and about lifestyle recommendations were evaluated using a questionnaire. The survey questions were created by the research team in the light of the studies in the literature. A total of 269 students, 134 female (49.8%) and 135 male (50.2%) participated in the study. 58.7% of the students were of 1st year students and 41.3% of the students were 6th year students. When the percentages of correctly answered questions were evaluated, 6th year students gave more correct answers than 1st year students (median [min-max] 80.9% [48.9-97.9] vs median [min-max] 68.1%) [2.1-93.6],p<0.001). Students have less knowledge about advanced heart failure treatments such as heart transplantation and artificial heart compared to other treatment methods. Although knowledge and awareness of heart failure increases after they take theoretical lectures and attend to clinical internship training, lectures about advanced heart failure treatment methods such as heart transplantation and artificial heart should take more place in education programs.

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