Medical student's attitude toward severe mental illness and its associated factors at the university of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia.

Introduction: Mental illness is mental and emotional disturbances that affect individual thinking, feeling, decision-making, mood, and daily functioning. A poor attitude toward severe mental illness means an individual has a distorted perception or attitude toward severely mentally ill patients. Despite the presence of a high burden of negative attitudes toward severe mental illness, there is a limited study conducted on Ethiopian University students. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the prevalence of poor attitudes toward severe mental illness and its associated factors among University Gondar medical students in Northwest Ethiopia. Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was employed from Jun 25 to August 15, 2022. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to screen the attitudes of students toward severe mental illness. Mental Illness Clinician's Attitude fourth version and Mental Health Knowledge Schedule score tools were used to screen the attitude of students. Bi-variable logistic regression analysis was employed and variables with a p-value of less than 0.25 were entered into the multivariable logistic regression for further analysis. Factors with a p-value less than 0.05 at a 95 % Confidence Interval (CI) in the multivariable logistic regression analysis were considered statistically significantly associated. Results: From the total of 423 study participants with a 100 % response rate the overall prevalence of poor attitude towards severe mental illness among university students was 68.1 % with a 95 % CI (63.6-72.6). Age (18-24) [AOR = 2.47; 95 % CI: (1.37,4.45)], being male [AOR = 3.22; 95 % CI: (2.01-5.17)], from a rural area [AOR = 1.82; 95 % CI: (1.13-2.93)], and with no family history of mental illness [AOR = 2.07; 95 % CI: (1.12-3.82)] were statistically significantly associated factors with poor attitude towards severe mental illness. Conclusions: and recommendations: Approximately three-fourths of university Gondar medical students (68.1 %) had poor attitudes towards severe mental illness. Age (18-24), being male, originating from a rural area, and with no family history of mental illness were significantly associated with a poor attitude toward severe mental illness. Awareness creation about mental illness can change the attitude of students which can be done by the mental health department to give as a common course can help the student to have a positive attitude.