ARE THE MACEDONIAN
CITIZENS WELL INFORMED ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS?
M Trajcevska1, A Sandevski1, N Minovska1, L Simonovska1, L Seckova2
1 Institute for Lung Diseases and Tuberculosis
2 Pediatric Clinic, Medical Faculty Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Objective: Tuberculosis (TB) is
still a problem in our country (29.9 per 100 000). The aim of this survey
was to discover whether citizens have a proper health education about TB.
Methods: We tested 387 persons
(203 males and 184 females) asking them a battery of 42 questions: Do they
know that TB is an infectious disease? Is this disease a shameful one? Is
there any protection against TB?
These questionnaires showed differences in basic knowledge for TB
according to their age, gender, level of education, place of living and
social status.
Results: Chi-square test showed
statistically significant differences (p<0.001) between citizens younger
than 20 years (12/40) and those older than 20 years (330/5) on their
knowledge about whether they have heard about TB as a disease. The same two
groups (8/44) and (277/58) showed statistically significant differences
(p<0.001) about institutions for treating patients with TB. There were
significant differences (p<0.004) between those with primary school
(54/44) and those with secondary and higher education (99/190) in their
knowledge whether TB is a hereditary disease.
Conclusion: The conclusion is that
the citizens have a low level of health education about TB because of lack
of information in school as well as in the mass media.