Purpose: Sleep medicine is a rapidly growing field of Medicine globally. However, studies are lacking on the knowledge of Nigerian medical and dental students on sleep and the different types of sleep disorders. Thus, we assessed the knowledge, interest and awareness of Nigerian medical and dental students about sleep medicine. We also determined the factors associated with sleep knowledge among the medical and dental students.
Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study from June to September 2021, among medical students at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The students' knowledge of sleep was assessed with the Assessment of Sleep Knowledge in Medical Education (ASKME) survey. The participants were classified as having low or high scores based on the proportion who gave a correct answer to 60% of the questions.
Results: Among the 488 students who completed the questionnaire, there was a male preponderance (55%). About three-quarters of the respondents (376, 77%) had a low sleep knowledge score. Age, year of study, and awareness about sleep medicine were the predictors of sleep knowledge.
Conclusion: A significant proportion of the medical students had poor sleep knowledge scores. There is a need to incorporate teaching sleep medicine in the curriculum of medical students early in their training.
Keywords: Attitude; Awareness; Perception; Sleep education; Sleep health; Sleep medicine interest; Undergraduate dental students; Undergraduate medical students.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.