revistas-articulo-ingles

How to quote

González Murillo PA et ál. Mitos o leyendas urbanas relacionadas con la salud en estudiantes universitarios. Metas de Enferm abr 2011; 14(3): 28-32

Authors

1Agustín Pablo González Murillo, 2Emilio Pintor Holguín, 2Margarita Rubio Alonso, 3Francisco Javier Acebedo Esteban 4Enrique Vivas Rojo

Position

¹Enfermero. Licenciado en Humanidades. Profesor Asociado del Departamento de Enfermería de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud.²Especialista en Medicina interna. Profesor titular en la Universidad Europea de Madrid. ³SUMMA 112. Profesor de Atención Primaria en la Universidad Europea de Madrid. ⁴Médico especialista en alergología e inmunología.

Contact address

Pablo Agustín González Murillo. Departamento de Enfermería. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Europea de Madrid. C/ Tajo, s/n. 28670 Villa

Contact email: apablo.gonzalez@uem.es

Abstract

Objectives: to determine the level of knowledge held on a series of health-related myths and their degree of credibility in a population composed of first cycle university students from different academic programs, in the school of health sciences of the European University of Madrid.
Material and methods: cross-sectional descriptive study during the 2009-2010 school year using a population composed of first cycle Nursing, Dentistry and Physical Therapy university students. A self-elaborated structured questionnaire that contained questions on 10 health-related myths and sociodemographic variables was used. Descriptive statistical indexes were calculated and ?2, Student’s t test and ANOVA were utilized for the bivariate analysis.
Results: 149 students participated in the study (50 from Nursing School, 54 from Physical Therapy and 45 from Dentistry). Their mean age was 19,7 years, and 57% were women. In regards to the myths presented, the students reported being aware of an average of 7 (SD: 1,7) and considered an average of 4,5 (SD: 1,6) to be true. The only variable associated with a greater knowledge of myths was sex (female), while being older and having worked in the health field were associated with a larger percentage of believed myths.
Conclusions: future healthcare professionals are aware of health myths prior to starting their studies and most of these myths are considered to be true. It is important to explain to Health Sciences students that they should contrast the scientific basis of all information received by word of mouth or on the Internet.

Keywords:

health; Myths; researchuniversity student

Versión en Español

Título:

Mitos o leyendas urbanas relacionadas con la salud en estudiantes universitarios