Burdur’da ilköğretim 8. sınıflarda β - talasemi taşıyıcılık sıklığı

Aim. β thalassemia trait is a major public health problem in our country. Study aims to determine the prevalance of β thalassemia trait and level of thalassemia knowledge among the 8th grade primary school students in Burdur. Methods. A total 3515 students who were studying in the 8th grade primary school in Burdur were participated to this study. Epi Info program was used for representing the population, and 739 of students were determined by randomization for the sampling. All the blood samples taken from students were analyzed in Burdur Thalassemia Diagnosis Center by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. The data is evaluated in SPSS 10.0 packed software. Results. The incidence of β-thalassemia trait with high hemoglobin A2 and the abnormal hemoglobin was found 5.2% and 0.9% respectively. Of all the participants, 66.9% known thalassemia disease, 90.6% known that thalassemia was a blood disease, 84.3% were aware that thalassemia not an infectious disease, 85.5% were aware of the pre-natal diagnosis. Conclusion. The prevalence of β thalassemia trait among the 8th grade primary school students in Burdur was higher than the country average. The students' level of knowledge about thalassemia was high. In this context, to reduce the prevalence of thalassemia carriers, carriers need to be identified with periodic school entrance medical examinations and both the parents and carrier children should also be subject to education.