Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of final year medical students regarding thalassemia major.
Methodology: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in six different public and private sector medical colleges in Rawalpindi and Islamabad from January to June 2018. A total of 430 students of final year MBBS after giving consent were included in study with convenient, random and non-probable sampling. Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) score was analysed from the response from students. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS version 23.
Results: The mean score of knowledge was 11.25±2.59, mean score of attitude was 7.72±1.45 and mean score of practice was 2.33±1.69. About 54.7% of medical students had adequate and 45.3% had inadequate knowledge about thalassemia, 65.8% had positive and 34.2% had negative attitude and only 5.3% had good practice and 94.7% had bad practices.
Conclusion: This study showed adequate knowledge, positive attitude but poor practice of young medical students towards thalassemia major. This can be improved by further emphasis on thalassemia major in undergraduate medical curriculum.
Key words: Thalassemia, knowledge, attitude, practice, medical students.
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