KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHERS TOWARD SICKLE CELL DISEASE IN JAZAN REGION, SAUDI ARABIA

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of Hemoglobin disorder, It's a chronic disease, Saudi Arabia suffer a burden of SCD especially in eastern and western region That is due to high consanguinity (57.7%) and may up to (80%) in some rural area. The Quality of life of the patient with SCD usually impaired and they die early which due to many life-threatening complications like vaso-occlusive crisis, stroke and organ failure. Objective: This study conducted to measure the Knowledge of teachers toward the sickle cell disease. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study carried out in 510 teachers in jazan region, using self-administrated questionnaire from April 2018 to June 2018. Results: A total of 510 Saudi teachers participated in this study. more than have of respondents were female 365 (71.6%) and 145 (28.4%) were male. A total number of 286 (56.1%) of were live in rural area and 224 (43.9%) were live in urban area, where 216 (42.4%), 233 (45.7%) and 61 (12.0%) of study population lived in coastal, lowlanders and mountain area respectively. The majority of study population were married 363 (71.2%), 108 (21.2%) were single, 16 (3.1%) were divorced and 5 (1.0%) were widow. Most of participants 242 (47.5%) had monthly income from 10,000 to 15,000SR, 146 (28.6%) of them had less than 10,000 RS, and 122 (23.9%) had more than 15,000. A total of 185 of participants (36.3%) had between one to three children, 155 (30.4%) had more than four children and 170 (33.3%) had no children. Around half of participants 250 (49.0%) were consanguine, and 260 (51.0%) were not. According to the relationship the majority of participant 168 (32.9%) were related from paternal side and 86 (16.9%) from maternal side. The level of Knowledge of Participant the maximum percentage ( 50.9%) had average knowledge on SCD, around (41.3%) had Inadequate knowledge, where (2.7%) had adequate Knowledge. Conclusion: The level of knowledge of SCD is average in teachers in jazan region.