Medical students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding renal pelvic cancer

Background This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of medical students towards renal pelvic cancer. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from 17/10/2023 to 15/11/2023, across several universities, gathering a considerable volume of data via a questionnaire survey. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests or Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance were performed to compare differences across groups. Spearman correlation analysis was employed to assess the correlations between KAP scores. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the factors influencing KAP. Results A total of 907 valid questionnaires were included in the analysis. Among these medical students, 542 (59.8%) were female, while 397 (43.8%) had undertaken an internship or practicum in urological tumors. The median (25th percentile, 75th percentile) score of knowledge, attitude, and practice were 35 (30, 40), 25 (24,28) and 16 (13,20), respectively. Multivariate logistic regression showed that being located in non - Zhejiang province (OR = 2.270, 95% CI: [1.256, 4.105], P = 0.007), knowledge score ≥ 35 (OR = 2.609, 95% CI: [1.977, 3.444], P < 0.001), and attitude score ≥ 25 (OR = 1.688, 95% CI: [1.272, 2.241], P < 0.001) were independently associated with positive practice. The Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that knowledge directly affected attitude (β = 0.307, P < 0.001) and attitude directly affected practice (β = 0.129, P = 0.013). In addition, knowledge has both a direct effect on practice (β = 0.404, P < 0.001) and another indirect effect on practice through attitude (β = 0.040, P = 0.013). Conclusions Medical students demonstrate moderate knowledge, positive attitudes, and inactive practices towards renal pelvic cancer. Efforts should be directed towards implementing precise and clinically oriented educational interventions for high-risk and easily overlooked rare diseases such as renal pelvic cancer, with the aim of improving medical students’ abilities in early recognition, risk assessment, referral, and patient management in clinical practice. Clinical trial number Not applicable.