MEDICAL STUDENTS' PERCEPTION ON HONEY HEALING EFFECTS ON BURN IN TABUK REGION, SAUDI ARABIA, CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

The antiseptic and antimicrobial properties of honey were chemically demonstrated, and many studies have investigated the effect of honey on wound and burn recovery. This study aims to evaluate the perception of the biological role of honey in wound healing and its medicinal properties among the medical students. Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted among medical students and interns of Tabuk Universiy, KSA. Pre-designed questionnaire was sent to social media groups of all study years among Tabuk University medical student, including interns. Only complete forms were included regardless of gender, age and study level. Data were imported into an Excel spreadsheet and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The Chi-square test was used to test distribution of categorical variables. Results The study included 268 medical students with age range (17-28) years and mean±SD of (22.6±1.6). The results found that (36%) of the participants are knowledgeable about the ability of honey to improve and accelerate wound healing, only (25.4%) know that honey is more effective than SSD in infection-free burns, over half of them (55.6%) know about its anti-inflammatory effect and (36.9%) are educated about the antibacterial role of honey. The estimates also showed a significant correlation between knowing the biological role of honey and the students’ age and study level with (P < 0.1). Conclusion Honey is effective in healing wounds with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory actions and enhance the wound dressing in comparison to SSD. This study demonstrated that the medical students should be educated about the medical progress in the medicinal properties of honey.