Students’ and Practitioners’ Perceptions and Attitudes Related to Anatomy Education in a Low-Income Country, Experience from Mali

Abstract

Background: Human gross anatomy has played a significant role in the advancement of scientific observation throughout the centuries. Many argue that it has survived the most demanding pedagogic test-time. However, human anatomy has recently been gradually squeezed from the medical curriculum. Studies have reported decreases in allocated time, teaching staff, and dissection in many anatomical education schools. Despite data provided from the literature, the assessment of anatomical education is lacking in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). Our study aimed to assess early students’ perceptions and attitudes toward anatomy education in low- and lower-income countries (LLICs). Methods: Likert-scale questions were used to assess the opinions of 108 students, graduates, and post-graduates toward anatomical education. The questionnaires were given to the respondents with respect to their consent and confidentiality. Results: The age group from 20 to 25 was the most predominant (n = 91, 85%), followed by practitioners from 26 to 30 (n = 15, 14%). The male gender predominated (n = 67, 62%) with a 1.63 sex ratio. According to students’ satisfaction with the anatomical curricula taught, 51.4% (n = 55) agreed, and 34.6% (n = 37) strongly agreed that the anatomy training was invaluable. Therefore, dissection-based learning was the most suggested way for a deep understanding of anatomical knowledge (n = 73; 68.8%). Conclusion: Our study reported that the majority of participants agreed that anatomy education was invaluable in their curricula and expected to deepen their anatomical knowledge in the future.