Assessment of Students Knowledge and Attitude toward Hepatitis B and C in Sohag University/Egypt

Abstract

Objective: To determine the effect of health education on the student knowledge in Sohag University regarding hepatitis B and C and to compare with four different faculties educational fields.

Methodology: the study was conducted at Sohag University of the period 8/11/2010 - 25/4/2011. samples was consist of 1230 undergraduate students of four faculties in Sohag University, Sohag Governorate attended an interactive symposiums using Power Point presentation on present study and completed demographic and pre-post-interactive symposiums questionnaires. Both tests included the same questions with addition of five questions added to post-test about customs and attitudes that will be change after symposiums.

Results: The respondents were made up of 540 (43.9%) students faculty of Arts, 410 (33.3%) faculty of Nursing, 170 (13.8%) faculty of Commerce and 110 (8.9%) was faculty of Education. Eighty-four 68.3% of the total students were female while 31.7% were males with mean age 18.89 ± 0.98 years (range 17-23). Most of them (52.8%) were rural. The level of knowledge in pre-test scores were poor in all students especially non-biological science compare to the post-test, the overall test scores were improved significantly. There was statistically significant correlation between knowledge and type of education, while the age, gender, and students residence were not found to have an important influence on their knowledge scores as well the study revealed that 27.6% of students were have family history of hepatitis.

Conclusion: Health education through symposiums and awareness campaigns are effective in improving toward hepatitis knowledge and attitude among University students.

Recommendation: The present study demonstrates a need for further HBV, HCV education for a larger number of University students