Background & Objectives: BETA – thalassemia is the most common single gene disorder in India. A WHO update on b-thalassemia in India indicated a carrier frequency of 3–4%, which gave the current national population between 35.6 and 47.5 million carriers of the disorder nationwide. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice about thalassemia among general population.
Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study carried out in a tertiary teaching hospital in Kolkata, India from April 2014 to June 2014 among 428 study population using a pre designed pre-tested structured schedule by face-to-face exit interview method. All statistical analyses were conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 22.0).
Results: About 57.94% of the study population had adequate knowledge; 83.88% had positive attitude and only 14.02% had good practice about thalassaemia. The significant contributing factors of thalassemia knowledge and attitude were age (middle age),gender (male), residence (urban), marital status (married),education level (bachelor degree), occupation (students & service holders), and Per Capita Monthly Income (high SE scale).
Interpretation & conclusions: General public don’t have adequate knowledge on thalassemia; their attitude was good but practice was very poor; and they need a high level of information.
Key words: Thalassemia, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice.
