Browsing by Author "Jovanović, Aleksa (57216047949)"

Background/Aim. The competence of healthcare workers (HCWs) to advocate the importance of immunization to persons who are hesitant about vaccines is extremely important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the final-year medical students’ competencies related to immunization challenges in their practice using their knowledge, attitudes, and study practices. Methods. The cross-sectional study was conducted among 442 final-year students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. The instrument used for data collection was an anonymous questionnaire consisting of 38 questions. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the predictive value of different factors in immunization knowledge among medical students. Results. The median total knowledge score with the interquartile range was 7 ± 3.00 out of 13. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the knowledge score and the grade point average (GPA) (r = 0.207, p < 0.001). Thirty-five percent of students felt moderately capable of conducting work regarding vaccination without supervision. Furthermore, 92.1% of students considered that additional training and information channels about immunization needed to be implemented in curricula for HCWs. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that gender, age, GPA, study duration, self-confidence regarding immunization knowledge, the flu, and hepatitis B vaccination status explained a total of 36% of the variance in the immunization knowledge score. Less than two-thirds of students believed they had enough knowledge to reassure a person hesitant about immunization. Conclusion. The results of our study showed an average level of knowledge about immunization among final-year medical students. As less than two-thirds of students believe that they have enough knowledge to reassure a hesitant person, there is a need for a better understanding and improving the parts of the curricula of medical faculties regarding immunization. © 2023 Inst. Sci. inf., Univ. Defence in Belgrade. All rights reserved.

Cognitive impairment is one of the most frequently reported symptoms in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). The Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BI-CAMS) has been recommended as a standardized international screening and monitoring tool for brief cognitive assessment.The aim of our study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Serbian version of the BICAMS. A total of 500 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients and 69 age-, gender-and educa-tion-matched healthy control (HC) subjects were examined. All participants performed the BICAMS test battery, which includes the oral version of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), California Verbal Learning Test second edition (CVLT-II), and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Revised (BVMTR). A ran-domly selected subset of patients were retested one to three weeks after baseline. Statistically significant dif-ferences between patients and HCs were evident on the SDMT and BVMTR (p<0.001). HCs had higher CVLT-II scores but this difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.063). Cognitive impairment, defined as an abnormal test score on ≥1 subtest, was found in 62.9% of MS patients.There were statistically significant correlations between BICAMS scores and age, education, EDSS and disease duration in patient sample. Test-retest reliability was confirmed with Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.70 in all measures. This study supported the reliability and validity of the Serbian BICAMS, although the CVLT-II version tested here lacked sensitivity to detect MS compared to healthy volunteers. © 2022, Dr. Mladen Stojanovic University Hospital. All rights reserved.