Background: Rickets is caused mainly by vitamin D deficiency and/or dietary calcium deficiency or improper metabolism of these nutrients. The present study aims to measure the awareness and knowledge about rickets among public of eastern region of Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study with one stage sampling technique, that was conducted in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia to evaluate the awareness, knowledge, perception, and sources of information of rickets disease and its related risk factor among population the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, who were aged above 18 years. The survey was distributed and published in the social media (a self-administered electronic questionnaire).
Results: A total of 422 have participated in the study. Among them, 62.8% had low level of knowledge, 34.1% had moderate level of knowledge, and 3.1% had high level of knowledge. Most of the participants dont trust their source of information but they were using it either way, the commonest sources were Internet 44.1%, family 28.4% and university or work 25.4%. A significant relationship was found between education and mean knowledge score (p < 0.001), where is the higher the level of education the higher was the mean knowledge score.
Conclusion: Most of the population in eastern province of Saudi Arabia did not have sufficient knowledge about rickets, and most of their source of information was the Internet. Therefore, we need to increase the awareness in the population about this condition and from where the information should be taken. Moreover, we should increase the awareness among the people with low socioeconomic status.
Key words: Rickets, knowledge, awareness, risk factors, Saudi Arabia
|
