ABSTRACT
Background: Tuberculosis continues to be a major public health problem in our country and is the largest cause of loss of healthy life years in the productive age. Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme depends on passive reporting of the chest symptomatic to the health institution. Therefore, it is important that the basic knowledge about the disease and the availability of free treatment is clear among the individual in the community. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 360 students of I and II PU College students of urban and rural area of Davangere Taluk, Karnataka. Selection of schools and students was done by simple random and systematic random sampling method. Data collection was done by using predesigned, pretested structured proforma & analyzed by using software SPSS version17. Results: Our study results show that awareness with regard to severity (64.4%), causative agent (72.8%), whether spreads from person to person (56.7%), mode of transmission(38.9%), symptoms(78.9%) and whom to consult if signs of TB are detected (82.8%) of rural students was better compared to urban students and with regards to affected organ (72.8%), among whom TB is commonly seen(85%), diagnosis(78.9%), whether TB is curable (73.3%), availability of diagnostic and treatment facilities (71.7%), prevention (85%) and what advice given to TB patient (86.1%) awareness was better among urban students compared to rural students. Conclusions: Our study findings indicated that overall the awareness was better among urban students compared to rural students & 53% of the rural students had wrong knowledge that TB can be diagnosed by blood test.