GENERAL KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE ABOUT PARKINSON’S DISEASE AMONG ALMAAREFA COLLEGES STUDENTS

Dr. Amar Fathi Mohamed Khalifa MD, Abdulhameed Raafat Kanaan, Adham Hassan Halouane, Adnan Said Al Nahhas, Ahmad Shawoqi Sabra, Aref Mohammad Aref Ameen*, Jehad Bashar Al-Najjar, Mohammed Raafat Hassan Batal, Rami Mohammad Sabah Al-Madani, Shahem Mohammad Abbarh, Wael Zakaria AL-Khateeb

ABSTRACT

Backgrounds: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common cause of Parkinsonism, the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease of aging, currently affecting over 4 million people worldwide, and expected to affect about 9 million people by the year 2030. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by slowness, stiffness and difficulty in initiating, coordinating and maintaining movement throughout the body. Public attitudes to the disease are important as if there is less sympathy or support available for the sufferers and their families, sufferers may be stigmatized. Objectives: This study aims to determine the level of awareness among university students regarding Parkinson's disease. Methodology: Our study is descriptive cross-sectional institutional-based study. The sample size was 150 participants who are students affiliated to Almaarefa colleges, excluding students who reach clerkship level, graduated students and/or students not affiliated to Almaarefa colleges. Random sampling is the technique used to choose participants. In this study we used self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel was used to generate figures and charts. Consent was obtained before data collection emphasizing each participant right to withdraw from the study at any point of time. Results: The results for our study that showed important objectives such as level of general knowledge, knowledge regarding symptoms and attitudes for students. Generally, almost half the students showed a good level of general knowledge (46%) and moderate knowledge regarding clinical symptoms of PD (48%). Our study also revealed that a minority (15.3%) do feel uncomfortable dealing with Parkinson's disease patients. More than half (58.7%) of participants choose to consider themselves feeling supportive and want to help While (14%) of participants considered themselves having no feelings. Conclusion: most of the participants especially those in allied health fields showed moderate to good knowledge about Parkinson's disease and positive attitudes toward Parkinson's disease among Almaarefa colleges students, although there were deficits in some of the answers. Future research should continue to explore knowledge and attitudes about PD in diverse communities and different samples.

Keywords: Disease, Parkinson, Knowledge, Attitude, Student.