Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an organ-specific inflammatory disease that predominantly affects the central nervous system and is considered the main cause of chronic neurologic disability in young and middle- aged adults. While MS prevalence in Saudi Arabia is significantly increasing, public awareness remains generally poor, and such limited understanding is also observed among students within health-related disciplines. Our study aims to carry out a survey of students from different health-related colleges in the Makkah region of western Saudi Arabia. We compared the rates of awareness and determinants of MS knowledge and consequently recommended strategies to improve this gap in awareness.
Methods: This survey-based, cross-sectional study was conducted at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. A structured questionnaire including questions on MS knowledge was administered.
Results: In total, 397 students participated in this study, aged between 18 and 25 years. A total of 262 (66.2%) participants were male and 134 (33.8%) were female. The majority of respondents were 5th-year students within the College of Medicine, while 2nd-year students and those within the College of Pharmacy and the College of Nursing were the least represented. Moreover, the association between level of awareness and participant age and academic year was significantly positive (p-value = 0.001).
Conclusions: Consequently, participant age and academic year represented a significant level of awareness in comparison with other demographic categories.
Key words: Multiple sclerosis, medical students, awareness, knowledge, Makkah city, Saudi Arabia
|
