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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci 2023; 16(03): e300-e309
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1772828
Original Article

Sleep Medicine Knowledge Among Graduating Medical Students in Lebanon During an Economic and Political Crisis: A Preliminary Survey

Raissa Aoun 
1   Department of Neurology, New York University Langone, New York, New York, United States
,
Victor Zibara 
2   Department of Medicine, Lebanese American University, Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chaghoury School of Medicine, Byblos, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
,
Christy Costanian 
2   Department of Medicine, Lebanese American University, Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chaghoury School of Medicine, Byblos, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
,
Hrayr P. Attarian 
3   Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States
,
Sola Aoun Bahous 
2   Department of Medicine, Lebanese American University, Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chaghoury School of Medicine, Byblos, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
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Funding Not Applicable.
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Abstract

Objectives Sleep disorders are prevalent and underrecognized during both economic and political crises. They are a major reason for poor overall health and decreased quality of life. Sleep medicine education is limited at most medical schools, resulting in limited awareness of this important aspect of healthcare. The aim of the study is to assess sleep medicine knowledge of graduating medical students in Lebanon and to assess their readiness to tackle sleep health issues in a country during an unprecedented crisis.

Methods Final-year medical students at 7 medical schools in Lebanon were invited to fill a survey between January 2020 and March 2021. The Assessment of Sleep Knowledge in Medical Education survey was used to assess their knowledge in sleep medicine. The curriculum organizers at the medical schools were also surveyed. Student's t-test was used for analysis.

Results 158 and 58 students completed the survey during 2020 and 2021, with a mean overall score on sleep knowledge of was 17.5 and 15.9 /30, respectively. There was no difference in mean knowledge scores by gender, age, American versus European medical school systems, and between medical schools that included sleep medicine in their curriculum versus those that did not.

Conclusions Presence of sleep medicine education in the curriculum was associated with higher scores on ASKME among graduating Lebanese medical students. Given the low response rate, however, this descriptive pilot data could be used as a launching pad for a larger study, with a more representative sample, for generalizable results.

Keywords

sleep medicine - medical education - surveys - Lebanon

Data Availability

Data available on request due to privacy/ ethical restrictions.


Ethics Approval

The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved for an exemption by the Institutional Review Board at the Lebanese American University (RE#: LAU.SOM.SB1.16/Jan/2020).


Consent for Publication

Not Applicable.


Author Contributions

R.A.: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft. C.C.: Formal Analysis, Writing- Original Draft. Writing- Review & Editing. V.Z.: Formal Analysis, Data Curation, Writing, Reviewing, Editing H. A.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Review & Editing. S.A.B.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing- Review & Editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.




Publication History

Received: 23 June 2022

Accepted: 09 November 2022

Article published online:
11 September 2023

© 2023. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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