Evaluation of knowledge, attitudeandawareness level of familyhealthworkersabout spinal muscularatrophy (SMA) disease and screening

Aim: Theaim of thisstudywastoevaluatetheknowledge, attitudeandawarenesslevels of familyhealthworkers in Şanlıurfa provinceabout spinal muscularatrophydiseaseandscreening. MaterialandMethod: Thestudywascross-sectional. Thepopulation of thestudyconsisted of allhealthpersonnelworking as familyhealthworkers in allfamilyhealthcentres in thecentralandouterdistricts of Şanlıurfa province. Familyphysicians, cleaningpersonnelandautomationtechnicianswereexcluded. Since thestudypopulationconsisted of 440 people in total, thesamplewas not selectedand it wasaimedtoreachthewholegroup. 229 (52%) of 440 peoplecould be reached. 'Questionnaire on thelevel of knowledge, attitudeandawareness of familyhealthworkersabout spinal muscularatrophy (SMA) diseaseand SMA/screening' wasused as a data collectiontool. Thequestionnaireconsists of two partsquestioningsociodemographiccharacteristicsandthelevel of knowledge, attitudeandawarenessabout SMA diseaseandscreening. Thequestionshave 3 options as true, falseanddon'tknow. Eachquestion is worth 5 pointsand 5 pointsaregivenonlyifthequestion is answeredcorrectly, and 0 pointsaregivenifthewronganswerordon'tknowoption is marked. A minimum score of 0 and a maximumscore of 100 points can be obtainedfromthisquestionnaire. Results: Themedian total score of theparticipantswas 45 (15-85). Themedian total score of thosewhosaidthattheirknowledgeabout SMA wasinsufficientwasfoundto be significantlylowerthanthosewhosaidthattheirknowledgewassufficientandmoderate. Conclusion: Themedian total score of familyhealthworkers in Şanlıurfa provincewassignificantlylowerthanexpected. Themostimportantreasonforthisresultseemsto be thelack of education.