The Knowledge Levels of Medical Faculty Students About Tuberculosis Disease

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the consequences of education of medical faculty students regarding tuberculosis and to com­pare the attitudes and knowledge of student subgroups who completed education regarding tuberculosis and the ones who did not. Methods: A questionnaire prepared to assess the knowledge of students about the diagnosis and treatment of tuber­culosis was administered by a face-to-face interview method. The demographic features of students were recorded. The answers of students who attend fifth class and completed education on tuberculosis and the ones attending first two classes and did not learn anything about tuberculosis were compared. Results: Mean age of 293 students included in study was 21.1±1.9 years. One hundred and ninety two (65.5%) of them were male and 101 (34.5%) were female. One hundred and fifty two (51.9%) of the participants were attending pre-education classes, while 141 (48.1%) were attending post-education class. When compared to the students attending first two classes, the students attending fifth class had significantly more information about the route of transmission (84% vs. 42.8%, p<0.001), risk factors associated with transmission (77.3% vs. 29.6%, p<0.001), symptoms (59.1% vs. 35.5%, p=0.001), diagnosis (70.9% vs. 24.3%, p<0.001), and duration of tuberculosis treatment (83.7% vs. 34.2%, p<0.001) and they were less anxious about having tuberculosis (27% vs. 40.1%, p=0.017). Conclusion: The students who completed education on tuberculosis had significantly more information about the route of transmission, risk factors associated with transmission, symptoms, diagnosis, and duration of tuberculosis treatment and had lower level of anxiety about having tuberculosis