Awareness of people about forensic doctors in Iraq in 2018:a cross-sectional study.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Pathologh and Forensic Medicine / College of Medicine / University of Baghdad / Baghdad / Iraq

2 Baghdad university college of medicine/ medical researcher

Abstract

Background:
Forensic medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with applying medical knowledge to establish facts in civil or criminal cases, such as investigations into the cause and time of death. In Iraq, people's knowledge about forensic doctors' profiles is unknown, so this study aims to assess the general population's knowledge regarding forensic doctors. 
Methods: 
This is a cross-sectional study that involved 644 participants from different provinces in Iraq using a self-administered questionnaire published via social media websites. The survey involved questions about the sociodemographic status of participants and twelve questions about forensic doctor duties, which were listed in the Iraqi constitution. These were tested for internal consistency with an alpha Cronbach value of 0.82. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social science (SPSS) version 23. 
Results:
The mean number of questions correctly answered was 7.35 with a standard deviation of 3, 9.5% of the sample answered all the questions correctly, 30.4% answered from 9 to 11 questions, 20.5% from 7 to 8, 28% from 4 to 6, 9.4% from 1 to 3 and 2.2%  answered all questions wrongly. The highest awareness was about the duty of dissecting bodies, identifying the remnants' identity, and identifying the cause of death. The lowest awareness was about public morality issues as a duty of the forensic doctor. There was a statistically significant association between the number of correctly answered questions and gender, age, marital status, and education level. 
Conclusion :
This study shows moderate knowledge and awareness about forensic doctors among Iraq's general population.

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