International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | July 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 7 Page 2555 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Gore CA et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2017 Jul;4(7):2555-2557 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article A study on knowledge regarding first aid among undergraduate medical students Chaitali A. Gore 1 *, Sruthi Sankar 2 , Shabnam Sheriff 2 , Swetha Anand 2 , Smrithika L. 2 , Swathi Maiya 2 INTRODUCTION Life is characterized by precarious twists and turns and risky conditions that emerge all the time. All throughout the globe, people suffer from heart attacks, loss of consciousness, severe wounds, surface injuries, burns, strokes and many more. Along with this, drowning incidents are more common among children. The high mortality associated with them can be easily prevented most of the times by some very simple maneuvers and skills like mouth to mouth and mouth to nose respirations which were among the earliest resuscitative efforts using artificial respiration. 1 First aid is the immediate action taken to save a life and reduce the effects of injury and illness until medical help is obtained. 2 First aid provider should be able to handle the situation without panicking. 3 Since today’s medical ABSTRACT Background: Life is characterized by precarious twists and turns and risky conditions that emerge all the time. First aid is the immediate action taken to save a life and reduce the effects of injury and illness until medical help is obtained. This study aims at assessing the knowledge regarding first aid among undergraduate medical students and comparing the knowledge among different terms. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among 150 undergraduate medical students of Vydehi Medical College, Bangalore. A questionnaire with 15 questions regarding the awareness and skills involved in first aid were used to assess the levels of awareness among undergraduate medical students. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet. Analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21. Data was analysed using percentages and Chi-square test. Results: A total of 150 medical students filled the questionnaire, 50 each from 5 th (2 nd year), 7 th (3 rd year) and 9 th terms (4 th year). The overall scores were, 43 out of 150 students had excellent knowledge, 71 out of 150 needed improvement, 35 out of 150 had adequate knowledge and only 1 out of 150 had poor knowledge about First-Aid. The association between terms and level of knowledge was found to be statistically significant. Conclusions: First Aid knowledge among medical students needs improvement. Level of knowledge improved with increasing term but this was not sufficient and more training should be given to all medical students on first aid and basic life support. Keywords: Medical students, First aid, Knowledge 1 Department of Community Medicine, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 2 Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India Received: 15 May 2017 Revised: 10 June 2017 Accepted: 13 June 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Chaitali A. Gore, E-mail: drchaitaligore@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20172858