Asif Irfan, Shamsul Arfeen, Seemi Imran.
Knowledge of common diseases in a young educated male population in Pakistan.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;42(3):120-5.

Objectives: To assess the level of awareness of the students to modes of spread of common diseases. Design: A cross sectional survey. Place and duration of the study: This study was conducted in April 2000. The place of the study was two boys colleges of Rawalpindi and one of Islamabad. Methods: Two boys colleges from Rawalpindi and one from Islamabad were randomly selected. Students of humanities group of FA and BA level were enrolled. Students studying science were excluded from study. Five questions pertaining to modes of spread of five diseases i.e. Tuberculosis, Typhoid, Cholera, Hepatitis B&C and AIDS were asked by means of a self-administered questionnair. Results: 1510 male students of Rawalpindi and Islamabad participated in the study. Their ages were between from 17 to 20 years (median18 years). Out of the total students 654(43.31%) were in first year, 503(33.31%) in second year, 227(15.03%) in third year and only 126(8.34%) were in the fourth year of the humanities group. . When asked about the source of information a number of students mentioned more than one source.3.57% gave 5 answers, 0.79% gave 4 answers, 11.78% gave 3 answers, 21.58% gave 2 answers and 62.25% gave one answer only. None of the students left it blank. Majority of the students (67.54%) mentioned Television as their source of information. The contribution of the Health care professionals was 25.03%, newspapers 22.38%, friends 20%, Radio 6.47% only. The sum total of these percentages add up to more than 100% as a number of students mentioned more than one source of information. Regarding questions about AIDS 82% of the students scored an above average score. The above average score was attained by 31% students for questions on TB, 33% for questions about hepatitis B&C, 38% for typhoid and 42% for cholera. Conclusions: The level of awareness of the young educated males to the modes of spread of common diseases is very low. Their knowledge about AIDS is good. Television is the main source of information for the students.

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