09 Schoolteachers knowledge.pmd

1Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. 2Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University and Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain. Received: 01/07/03; accepted: 29/10/03 ABSTRACT Schoolteacher could be a useful source of health information for students but that they themselves would have to possess adequate and accurate knowledge of health issues. We assessed Bahraini schoolteachers’ knowledge of some common health problems using a pre-tested, structured questionnaire which requested information on schools, teachers’ demographic data, and knowledge about 5 common health problems in Bahrain: bronchial asthma, sickle-cell anaemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and the dangers of smoking. We analysed the data on 1140 respondents from a random selection of teachers in all schools in Bahrain. The schoolteachers scored only around 50% on average for knowledge about common health problems which indicates a need to educate schoolteachers about health in order to improve their knowledge and their capability to disseminate health knowledge and information to students.