Abstract

OBJECTIVE

Tuberculosis is a global health problem. The World Health Organization estimated that there were half million new children cases diagnosed as tuberculosis annually and 74,000 deaths in children due to tuberculosis. This study was performed in order to assess the attitudes and knowledge of pediatric residents' about tuberculosis.

METHODS

In this descriptive study data were obtained by a multiple choise administered including 38 questions about the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and monitoring of tuberculosis. Totally 110 pediatric residents from three different teaching hospitals had filled the questionnaire.

RESULTS

The mean age of participants was 27.4 ± 2.6 years. Only 20 residents (18.2%) had correctly estimated the incidence of tuberculosis in Turkey while majority of the participants (55.5%) stated that they had no idea. The knowledge about the cases that the tuberculin skin testing (TST) was accepted as positive was found to be 38.2%. The answers to the questions ‘Which mask must be weared in contact of the patient during the infectious period of pulmonary tuberculosis?' were N95 (68.4% of participants) which was true and surgical mask(16.4% of the participants). Nearly 14.5 percent of the participants had no idea which mask to use.

CONCLUSION

This study has shown that the pediatric residents did not have enough knowledge about tuberculosis in Turkey. In particular, residents’ lack of information on personal protection from tuberculosis may cause important or even potentially fatal complications. This study indicated that post-gradutae education programmes for tuberculosis should be developed.