Knowledge on thalassaemia among students aged 14-17 years in Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka

Introduction: Prevention and control of thalassaemia in a country needs public education to prevent marriages between carriers. Correct message has to be delivered to the community so that the public will understand the importance of prevention. Kurunegala is one of the districts in Sri Lanka where thalassaemia is highly prevalent.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge on thalassaemia of school children aged 14-17 years in Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka.

Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Using probability proportional to size sampling technique, 55 clusters of 30 students in the age range 14-17 years each, were selected from all the schools in Kurunegala district. Within each selected school, the required number of children was selected randomly.

Results: Out of the 1821 participants 92.6% had heard of thalassaemia before. Majority (83.4%) of participants showed high knowledge score regarding thalassaemia. Age, gender, ethnicity and the type of school correlated with knowledge score.

Conclusions: Based on the study findings, students of Kurunegala district showed satisfactory level of knowledge regarding thalassaemia.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2021; 50(2): 261-265