@Article{, title={Knowledge about Tuberculosis among Secondary School Students in Baghdad City معلومات طلاب المدارس الاعدادية حول مرض التدرن في بغداد}, author={Intisar J. Mohammed انتصار جاسم محمد}, journal={IRAQI JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE المجلة العراقية لطب المجتمع}, volume={30}, number={2}, pages={76-78}, year={2017}, abstract={Abstract:Background: Community awareness in general and in young generations in particular is of vital importance in combating tuberculosis which is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Tuberculosis is still a prevalent disease in our country. Objective: To assess the knowledge of secondary school students regarding tuberculosis. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Al-Karkh district of Baghdad during the period from November 2015 to April 2016. The sample size was determined at 1000 students from the total number of 63464 students.A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select schools from each of the ten sectors; this resulted in collecting a total of 20 schools (ten schools for males and ten for females). The students were randomly selected from those schools, 500 male &500 Female, using a systematic random sampling technique by choosing every other student from the selected classes.The study instrument included multiple choice questions about the cause of the disease, the route of transmission, vaccination, symptoms, availability of treatment, transmission and prevention. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher making use of previous studies and WHO standards. Results: On average, 42% of the questions were answered correctly, only 27.2% knew that TB was caused by bacteria, 40.8% knew that TB’s first symptom was a cough of more than 3 weeks, 56.5% knew that TB is associated with loss of appetite & weight loss, 39.8% knew that TB is associated with fever & night sweats, only 38% of students knew that it is transferred by respiratory droplets, 60.6% knew that the first organ most commonly affected by TB is the lung, 44% knew that the TB vaccine is BCG, only 23.1% knew that sputum examination is used to help identify TB, 56.3% knew that covering your mouth during coughing & sneezing helps prevent disease spread, only 33.4% knew that TB treatment is available in all primary health care centers(PHCC).Conclusion: Only about one third of the student sample had good knowledge regarding Tuberculosis, also female students had a higher level of knowledge than male students.

} }