Awareness of Tuberculosis among General Populations in Riyadh Region and Its Surroundings

Abstract

Background: In the past, and until the end of the twentieth century, TB was one of the major causes of death. Nowadays, the world is still challenging with TB control, even though the percentage of TB has been decreased. In Saudi Arabia, annual TB incidence rate is 12/100,000 population. Even though incidence rate of TB has been decreased in Saudi Arabia, still TB not fully control. Getting the world free from TB will not happen if general populations don't aware about TB. Aim: To evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice towards TB among general populations in Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia. Method: This is a cross-sectional study done by selection of general populations in Riyadh region by random sample. The study was done by a self-administrated questionnaire that contains demographic data part and other parts that evaluate the awareness of TB. Comparison of results between many variables by Chi-Square Test and P-value < 0.05 was considered as a significant level. Result: Around 519 participants in this study (Response rate 94.36%) by mean age 33. Only 3.3% have a history of TB and 21.1% have relative with a history of TB. Only 19.4% of participants have good knowledge, only 18.0% have favorable attitude and most of the participants have a good practice (67.6%). People with high degree educational level have better knowledge than others. Non-Saudi people are better than Saudis in practice and people who have relative with a history of TB are better in attitude than others. In practice, Female are better than male, married people also better than single, people with a history of TB or relative with a history of TB are better than others. Conclusion: Papulations in Riyadh and its surroundings have a very low level of knowledge toward TB. Most people have unfavorable attitude level. Even though there is a high level of good practice but still it needs to be increased. Education has an important role to increase the level of knowledge about TB.

A Cross-Sectional Study of Tuberculosis Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Among the General Population in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia

“…Research conducted in Libya with a large sample also demonstrated limited knowledge, indicating the need for education on this subject [12]. However, most participants in our study had heard about TB (65.6%) and knew that bacteria cause it (48%), which is somewhat satisfactory in comparison to a study conducted in Riyadh revealing that only 35% of the participants knew the cause of TB [13]. The different study locations may explain this variation because TB is more prevalent in Makkah, affecting Saudis and non-Saudis equally.…”

“…Similar reasons were mentioned in southwest Ethiopia and Vietnam [21,25]. However, a study in Riyadh revealed that 67.6% of the general population had good practice knowledge, which could be a result of their high level of education and good healthcare-seeking behavior [13].…”