Awareness of anemia causes among saudi population in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia.

ABSTRACT

Background: Anemia is a global public health problem affecting both developing and developed countries with major consequences for human health as well as social and economic development. Aim: This study was conducted to assess awareness of anemia and its causes among Saudi population in Qassim region kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional community-based study was conducted throughout the Qassim region which has been divided into 11 provinces were evaluated.A total of 1281Saudi citizens participated in this study. Each participant was asked to answer a total of 18 questions from a pre-piloted questionnaire. Results: Data were analyzed statistically using (SPSS) version 16.The participants response rate was 95.7%, and general aware ness of anemia was 89.2%, whereas Satisfactory, fair, and poor awareness of anemia represented 20.5%, 50.5%, and 29.0% respectively, while the mean of awareness was 44.0 ± 22.8. Males represented 62.2%. In high education males were approximately twice times.Drinking tea,eating fava bean and pregnancy as anemia causes in both male and female showed highlysignificant awareness (p ≤ 0.001) in additionvegetarianism, drinking tea during meal, pregnancy, inheritance, renal failure and intestinal worms represented as well known (p≤ 0.001) causes of anemia in all levels of education. Moreover,vegetarianism, drinking tea,pregnancy and renal failure as well known causes (p ≤0.001) of anemia in different categories of education.Conclusion: Saudi citizens in Qassim region has satisfactory general knowledge of anemia, however, they are not very well aware of anemia causes. Therefore, our study suggests that more efforts should be made to increase the knowledge of anemia causes in the population.