KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDSTHALASSEMIA: INFLUENCING FACTORS AMONG ADULT POPULATION IN SHARJAH, UAE

Introduction:Thalassemia is an inherited disorder of red blood cells in which there is a defect in the production of normal hemoglobin. (Kukreja, Khan, Xian, Razley and Rahim, 2011). Like in many other countries, thalassemia poses an important public health problem in the United Arab Emirates. Aim:Our aim through this study is to evaluate the participants' general knowledge towards thalassemia and the different attitudes towards controversial issues surrounding thalassemia. Methodology:A cross-sectional study design was used. The study subjects were chosen to represent the adult population of Sharjah, UAE. A custom made self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data of a sample size that included 400 adults. The program SPSS 21 was used to enter and analyze the data. Results:Out of the total 400 respondents, 259 (64.8%) heard of Thalassemia previously. The main source of knowledge was through television (36.7%) while on the other hand the least was through health care providers (10.8%). Almost all of the respondents were aware of the definition (94.2%) of Thalassemia. While most of them knew how thalassemia was diagnosed, treated and transmitted, many were unaware of its method of inheritance and its types. Furthermore analytical study of the data showed that there is a statistically significant association between the overall awareness of thalassaemia and individuals that have been ever married (P=0.009) as well as individuals who had underwent postgraduate studies (P=0.006). When it came to the attitudes towards thalassemia almost half had a more positive attitude when it came to prenatal testing, marrying a thalassemia carrier and other issues. Conclusion: The overall awareness of the respondents towards thalassemia was significantly higher than expected. This may be attributed to the awareness efforts of this widespread disease in the UAE.