Indian student doctors' attitudes towards primary health care, poverty and related issues

An attempt is made to study the attitudes of student physicians towards primary health care, poverty, and related social issues in India. The sample consisted of 464 men and 228 women final-year medical students (a total of 692) from 11 medical colleges in India. An open-ended questionnaire was used. Content analysis was performed on the responses. There were no statistically significant differences between the responses of the students belonging to different socio-economic groups. There were some differences in the responses of the men and women students, especially on the question of poverty and related social issues. The data presented here show that the student physicians do not have a clear understanding of the primary health care approach, or about the social issues that influence health. This study underlines the need for exposing student physicians to the essential aspects of poverty and its impact on health and the importance of the primary health care approach for providing health care to disadvantaged groups.