Awareness of Thalassemia in Medical Students in a Medical School of Delhi.
Authors: Singhal Siddharth , Gupta Pushpa , Chaturvedi Sanjay , Singhal Mayank 
Published: October 2019

Awareness of thalassemia in medical students. Thalassemia affects 200 million people worldwide. In Southeast Asia, it is a major public health problem. In India, 10 000 cases are born per year. Thalassemia has until recently, received little attention and is not widely understood by health professionals. There is lack of proper awareness of Thalassemia. Thus. This study was done in 203 medical students at Delhi to assess their awareness about Thalassemia. A preformed proforma was used for this purpose. All the students present on a day in a particular batch were included. MS EXCEL and SPSS were used for analysis. P-value was calculated to assess the statistic significance.

Concepts like hematological, genetic & non-infective were well known as opposed to symptoms like fatigue, muscular weakness, abnormal bleeding, jaundice, protruding abdomen, fits, dark urine, bone pain, abnormal facial bones, and susceptibility to infections. Diagnostic and treatment modalities like electromyography, vitamins, antibiotics, cryoprecipitates, spleenectomy, bone marrow transplant and umbilical cord were also much less known. Awareness of preventive interventions like genetic counseling, consanguity, fetal blood sampling was less.

Thus, a continuous education model for medical staff is required. Although programs for increasing community awareness are underway in many countries; interventions to raise thalassemia awareness in medical professionals are also required.

General & Symptoms 2nd sem n=39 4th sem n=47 6th sem n=59 8th sem n=58 ’p’ value(X2) aware of thalassemia 38(97.4%) 47(100%) 59(100%) 58(100%) 0.238 not infectious disease 38(97.4%) 46(97.8%) 57(96.6) 57(98.3) 0.861 disorder of blood 37(94.9) 47(100%) 57(96.6) 58(100%) 0.267 genetic 37(94.9) 46(97.8%) 54(91.5) 57(98.3) 0.378 fatigue 28(71.8) 45(95.7) 51(86.4) 51(86.4) 0.009 muscular weakness 16(41) 21(44.7) 23(38.9) 24(40.6) 0.01 abnormal bleeding 21(53.8) 11(23.4) 24(40.7) 28(47.5) 0 jaundice 13(33.3) 42(89.4) 38(64.4) 40(67.8) 0 protruding abdomen 2(5.1) 13(27.6) 21(35.6) 25(42.4) 0 fits 7(17.9) 5(10.6) 7(11.9) 12(20.3) 0 dark urine 7(17.9) 33(70.2) 25(42.4) 0 bone pain 10(25.6) 35(74.5) 42(71.2) 40(68.9) 0 abnormal facial bones 5(12.8) 37(78.7) 50(84.7) 44(75.9) 0 susceptibility to infections 14(35.9) 27(57.4) 42(71.2) 41(70.7) 0 Investigations, Treatment & Prevention 2nd sem n=39 4th sem n=47 6th sem n=59 8th sem n=58 ’p’ value(X2) CBC & ferretin 22(56.4) 21(44.7) 26(44) 32(55.1) 0 radiography 0 6(12.7) 11(18.6) 25(42.4) 0 Hb electrophoresis 12(30.7) 34(72.3) 40(67.8) 35(60.3) 0 vitamins 0 12(25.5) 18(30.5) 21(36.2) 0 antibotic 1(2.5) 18(38.3) 21(35.6) 26(44.8) 0 transfusion 30(76.9) 35(74.5) 43(72.9) 39(67.2) 0.121 cryoprecipitate 13(33.3) 20(42.5) 23(38.9) 25(42.4) 0.001 spleenectomy 1(2.5) 27(57.4) 20(33.9) 32(55.1) 0 BM transplant 22(56.4) 34(72.3) 35(59.3) 32(55.1) 0.005 umbilical cord 3(7.6) 22(46.8) 22(37.3) 28(48.3) 0 penatal diagnosis 23(59) 27(57.4) 37(62.7) 41(70.7) 0.5 genetic counselling 12(30.8) 29(61.7) 43(72.9) 38(65.5) 0 gene therapy 19(48.7) 18(38.3) 29(49.1) 38(65.5) 0.044 consanguity 4(10.2) 15(31.9) 17(28.8) 33(55.9) 0 fetal blood 5(12.8) 17(36.1) 22(37.3) 30(50.8) 0.002