study of the knowledge in guilan university students about thalassemia

study of the knowledge in guilan university students about thalassemia seyam sh , assemi a received: 25 april, 2010 accepted: 27 july, 2010 abstract background & aims: thalassemia is caused by hemoglobin production disorder and intense anemia. general awareness of the public is an important preventive step. this study examins the knowledge of guilan university students about thalassemia. materials & methods: this descriptive cross sectional study covered 600 male and female students of guilan university selected by random sampling. a questionnaire was used for collecting data and information. the findings were analyzed with chi-square test. results: the level of knowledge was identified according to their knowledge about symptoms and ways of transmission and thalassemia prevention. the majority of students(58.50%) had less information, 29.33 % had average and only 12.17 % of them high awareness about the disease. the majority of university students in this study (92.33%) agreed with public training about thalassemia. they believed that the media was the best way to transfer the information. conclusion: considering the low level of awareness among students about the disease, it is suggested to plan more training about prevention way for reducing the risk of thalassemia. keywords: knowledge, thalassemia, prevention way address: biology department, guilan university, rasht, iran tel: (+98131)3223021 e-mail: [email protected]