A pilot study of medical student attitudes to, and use of, commercial movies that address public health issues

BMC Research Notes

Table 3 Public health-related movie viewing and movie withdrawal data from the medical school library by the two interventions*

Measure	Students in the 3 "minimal intervention" groups (n = 40 students)	Students in the 3 more intensive intervention "class presentation" groups (n = 42 students)
Self-reported viewing at baseline
Proportion viewing movies at the frequency of 1-2 per week or higher	50.0%	42.1%
Mean number of movies viewed from the list of 15 public health-related movies	3.1	3.8
*Self-reported viewing at end-of-module*
Mean number watched during the module:
- all students	2.4 (95/40)	2.0 (82/42)
- for those answering the questionnaire (n = 36 & n = 34)	2.6 (95/36)	2.4 (82/34)
Percentage watching at least one movie (for those answering the questionnaire)	80.6% (29/36)	97.1% (33/34)**
*DVD withdrawals from the library (covering all withdrawals up to the end of the last public health module of the year)*
Self-reported withdrawals
- total	86	70
- mean	2.2	1.7
- median	2	2
Registered withdrawals#
- total	112	115
- mean	2.8	2.7
- median	2	3
- range	0 - 11	1 - 7
Nil DVDs withdrawn	12	0
Percentage withdrawing at least one DVD	70% (28/40) (95%CI = 54.6%-82.6%)	100% (42/42)*** (95%CI = 93.1%-100%)

Notes:
* Unless otherwise indicated all analyses assigned zero values for those not completing the end-of-module questionnaire (i.e., an intention-to-treat analysis).
** Statistically significantly higher compared to the minimal intervention group (p = 0.033, Fisher exact 1-tailed test).
*** Statistically significantly higher proportion of 1 or more withdrawn compared to the minimal intervention group (p = 0.0001)
# As reported on the library computer system and excluding repeat withdrawals by the same person.

ISSN: 1756-0500