A Study on Knowledge & Awareness of Tuberculosis among Undergraduate Students of Government Universities in Dhaka

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is the second leading cause of human death and TB is one of the major public health problems in Bangladesh. The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge & awareness among undergraduate students of govt. universities in Dhaka. A cross-sectional survey was performed on 300 undergraduate students of govt. universities in Dhaka. Data were collected from universities of Dhaka from January to May 2016 using a standard 4 pages structured questionnaire. Among 300 students, male and female were 67 % and 33 % respectively. Most of the students (98%) were informed about the term TB. About 34 % students believed that TB is a communicable disease, 87.23% students agreed that bacteria is an agent for TB, less than half of the subjects (45%) had the knowledge about the vaccination against TB and 61% students believed that TB is curable. However, students had poor knowledge about latent TB (20%) and DOTs program (21%). 60% of students were aware about initial investigation for TB patients, maximum students (77%) had the idea about the place from where one can take treatment of TB & 53% were aware about the duration of treatment of TB. Most of the students (63%) of students had knowledge about precaution that should be taken by TB patient. In the present study demonstrated that the level of general knowledge about TB was insufficient among undergraduate students of govt. universities in Dhaka; consequently health education program is needed to improve the knowledge among undergraduate university students regarding TB.