Knowledge,attitude and behavior about thalassemia prevention and treatment among medical staff in obstetric medical institutions of Guangdong province

ObjectiveTo examine the status of knowledge,attitude and behavior about prevention and treatment of thalassemia among obstetric medical staff in Guangdong province,and to provide a basis for prevention and intervention of the disease.MethodsA total of 1 867 medical staff were selected with stratified random sampling and surveyed with a self-desinged questionnaire.ResultsThe awareness rates of thalassemia-related knowledge(≤71.00%) were not high in grass-roots medical staff,except for thalassemia being a hereditary disease(98.23%) and a birth of the newborn with moderate or severe thalassemia could be effectively prevented(85.97%),and only 36.39% of the staff knew the overall carrier rate of thalassemia gene in the population of Guangdong province.The awareness rate of test method for thalassemia was also low and only 52.04% and 44.99% of the staff knew that thalassemia could be diagnosed with routine blood test and hemoglobin electrophoresis.But the staff expressed strong support to the implementation of intervention on the disease;training,screening free of charge,and screening in target population for thalassemia were suggested by 98.35%,95.91%,and 66.90% of the staff surveyed and 74.16% of the staff reported shortages in skills for the intervention of the disease.ConclusionMost of obstetric medical staff in Guangdong province are lack of prevention and treatment knowledge about thalassemia and training on the prevention and treatment of the disease is warranted.