TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF HUMAN STEM CELL SOURCES IN MEDICAL AND PARAMEDICAL STUDENTS OF MEDICAL COLLEGE- A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

contains stemcells that can differentiate into other types, such ascartilage, Aim: This study was conducted to assess the knowledge and awareness about stem cells and its sources among Undergraduate and postgraduate students. Material And Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study was carried out among postgraduate andundergraduate medical and allied students of the medical college for a period of six months regarding knowledge and awarenessabout Stem Cells and its sources. Results: This study included 300 participants. Data from this study revealed a high level of awareness and knowledge of the stem cells among the undergraduate and postgraduate students. Conclusion: Our results showed excellent knowledge about sources of stem


Material and Methods:-
A cross sectional questionnaire based study was carried out among 300 students of MGM Medical College in Department of Biochemistry Aurangabad for a period of six months. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee.Inclusion criteria included subjects who were willing to participate in the study and then a written consent was obtained from them.A sample size of 300 included 50 MBBS students, 50 Allied health science students, 50 Physiotherapy students, 50 Nursing students, 50 Pharmacy students and 50 postgraduate/superspeciality students; and questionnaire was designed in such a way that the procedure should not take more than 10 minutes per participant.
The questionnaire was prepared in English language basedon a search of review of the literature regarding stem cells. A structured questionnaire with a set of 15 questions was designed to evaluate the knowledgeand awareness among participants regarding stem cells and their sources. The questionnaire was pre tested amongst 10 teaching faculty members to confirm its validity and reliability and to avoid uncertainty. Following the pretest, some modifications in the order of questions and terminologies were made in the final questionnaire.A five point Likert scale was used for scoring.
The questionnaire consisted of 10statements that suggested the degree of agreement or disagreement with each statement using a 5-point Likert scale [6]. Participants were instructed to choose only oneanswer for each statement. Score of (10 to 50) was givenfor all the questions. The portion of the questionnaire related to knowledge and awareness assessment isshown in Table. 2.
Other 5 questions consisted of 4or 5 responses. The responses thusobtained were then compiled, processed and analysed toarrive at the opinion on various answers. After collection, the Descriptive analysis of the Data was performed to get the frequency of responses using SPSS version 20. Independent sample t-test was used to assess thedifference between undergraduate and postgraduate scores for knowledge and awareness.ChiSquare test was used to assess the significance of theresponses and a P value <0.05 was considered statisticallysignificant.

Result:-
The following observations were made by the data analysed for demographic variables.Majority of the participants were in the age group 21-30 years (51.7%). 98.7% of the participants were less than 40 years which comprises of the younger generation. The male-to-female ratio of the students participated was approximately 1:1, with 158 males and 142 females. Descriptive statistics of the participants are shown in Table1.     Table 3. Similarly,the mean score among undergraduates and postgraduates withdifferent qualification is represented in Figure 1.Amongst the 1128 postgraduates, no significant difference between MD group and DM group wasnoted in regards to the mean score (29.46± 2.07, 28.33± 1.22) using independent sample t-test(p = 0.57). However, a significant difference in mean score was foundbetween MBBS students (30.21± 2.97) and paramedical students (35.21± 2.53) (p = 0.04) in the undergraduates.  As per Figure 2on hearing the term stem cells, 28% postgraduates and 25% undergraduatesfirst think of the term stem celltransplantation. Medical students had a better knowledge about Stem Cells i.e. 95.45% followed by students of para clinical and non-medical stream i.e.79.93%. Figure 3 represents the major source of information regarding stem cells in both the groups is internet (43%) followed by hospital/institute (25%). Majority of the participants (87% postgraduate and 61% undergraduate) agreed to immediate collection of blood for stem cells from the umbilical cord ( Figure 4).    Majority of the participants were in favour of stem cell preservation comprising of 63% postgraduate and 57% undergraduate students; while 36% and 34% of postgraduate and undergraduate students respectively believed that consulting the doctor would be beneficial. Interestingly, high percentage of participants (83% and 69% ) considered  Figure 5). This shows poor knowledge regarding stem cell donors among the participants.

Discussion:-
Stem cells have proved themselves to be of unique type of cells having specialized capacity to differentiate into variety of cells e.g smooth muscle cells, adipocytes, chondrocytes and neurons. Umbilical cord blood at the time of delivery is a rich source of stem cells and it is the finest gift parents can offer to their children. [7,8]Field of stem cell research has emerged with numerous applications in medicine due to potential ability toregenerate and repair damaged tissue.The current study investigated the level of knowledge and awareness regarding stem cells among undergraduate and postgraduate students of medical and paramedical fraternity.  [11]Over the years definitely knowledge hasincreased. This seems to be fairly goodpercentage and also draws attention to the fact that youthsare concerned with knowledge regarding stem cell and its sources.
Data from this study revealed a high level of awarenessand knowledge of the stem cells.It is high time that the message needs to be passed for the benefit of population. A concerted effort of creating awareness can take this message forward. It is time to develop programs to improve the awareness related to stem cells as stem cell therapy is said to have immense potential. [12]In few decades, we may see a day when geneticdisorders are tackledeffectively and efficiently with stem cellapplication.Government should make an amendment to make Stemcell Banking compulsory and free of cost for all thefamilies having a history of geneticdisorder.

Conclusion:-
The results of the present study concluded that majority of the medical students were aware of stem cell therapy in disease and health. The awareness regarding stem cellswas generally poor among the paramedical students. Stem cell research and application should be a part of curriculum of medical and paramedical education. Most of the students supported the storage of Umbilical cord as a rich source of stem cell.

Limitation:
The sample size was smaller for this study, hence a study with larger sample size is needed for the assessing the awareness and knowledge among the students, not only medical but non medical also.

Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from fundingagencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.