KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, INTEREST, AND AWARENESS OF ONE HEALTH AMONG ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, HUMAN AND VETERINARY MEDICAL STUDENTS IN KUMASI

Abstract

The One Health concept is critical in improving preparation for and response to current and future health challenges. Therefore, One Health training must be provided to health professionals early in their careers. A survey was conducted from February to May 2022 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) among Human Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Environment Science students to determine their awareness, knowledge, attitude and interest in the One Health concept. Online (Google forms) standard questionnaires were randomly administered to students across the three programs. Data were analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 25). Among the 419 respondents included in the study, 123 were Environmental science students, while Human Medicine and Veterinary Medicine had equal numbers of 148 each. Results of the study revealed that although 67.3% of the respondents had good knowledge about one health, 61.3% had no awareness of the one health concept. This lack of awareness about One Health was exceptionally high in Human Medicine (80.4%) and Environmental Science (79.7%) students and this observation was statistically significant (p = 0.001). Notable was the fact that students from all three programs were very interested in the One Health concept (p = 0.001), evident by a minimum of 79.1% of total respondents recommending the teaching of One Health in their respective programs of study. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents (82.1%) indicated they would like to pursue One Health studies in the future. This study reveals the acute lack of awareness about the One Health concept among essential future workforce crucial to the One Health implementation process. The study strongly recommends including One Health courses in the university’s health and environment programs curriculum.

Keywords: One Health, Human, Veterinary, Environmental Science, Students, Ghana.