Tuberc Respir Dis.  1975 Sep;22(3):119-125. 10.4046/trd.1975.22.3.119.

Socio-Medical Aspects of Tuberculosis Patients of Students in Seoul City

• KMID: 2528991
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1975.22.3.119

Abstract

Tuberculosis patients detected among the first grade middle and high school students during the period of 1973 and 1974 were questioned on two major points to obtain information on the following : 1) some social aspects of the students' backgrounds, and 2) knowledge, attitude and practice related to tuberculosis. The total number of the students questioned included 238 middle school students and 396 high school students. The results were as follows: 1. Some social aspects of the students' backgrounds The distribution of the sample by sex showed that 60. 4% of the students were male and 39.6% were female. 1n high school, the mode for εge was 16 years old and in junior high school, 13 years old. These two age groups comprised 42.7% and 47.5% respectively of the students in the high school and Junior high school age groups. The occupation of the students' guardians varied widely. The largest number of guardians were involved in retail (27.5% of the high school group ‘ and 22.3% of the junior high school group), followed ill order by clerical work, government employee, service business, agriculture and technical work. AIso 2. 5% of the middle school students and 4. 0% of the high school students reported their parents or guardians to be unemployed. There were many patients who did not answer the question about their parents’ occupation. These includeded 23.7% of the high school group and 38.7% of the middle school group. As to the economic. cond it ion of the students' families, the students were divided into t hree groups, “ affluent or higher than middle class," “ middle class" and “ lower than middle class or poor." The majority(66.6%) of the students belonged to the middle class, and 23. 0% to the lower than middle class or poor, while 9.0 % rated themselves the affuluent or higher than middle class. The most frequent family size was 6 persons(28. 7% of the sample) and the most freq uently reported birth order of the students in the sample was first born (25.9%) When questioned regarding discipling in the home, 84. 1 % of the high school and 76. 1 % of the middle school students replied that it was “moderate" or “adequete" , and those whose parents were indifferent"comprised 3.3% of the high school group and 1.7% of the middle school group. Questions about the future occupation of students in high school showed. that quite a large number wanted to be scholars or teachers. Among the high school students, this group amounted to 23.5% and among middle school student, 22.7% Regarding their feelings of self-worth, 20.5% of high school and 45.4% of junior high. school students reported that they were satisfied. An agregated 23.3% of the sample reported feelings of inferiority, dissatisfaction and unrest. The majority of the cases in high school (81. 8%) and about half of the middle school cases(49.6%) were discovered by the mass photoflurograpy survey. Student with tuberculosis patients in the family included 10.6% of the high school students and 10.5% of the middle school students. 2. Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice Related to Tuberculosis To test the knowledge about tuberculosis, students were asked to define the word “ tuberculosis" . The results show that 84.8% of high school students and 48.2% of the middle school students were able to do so. Students learned about tuberculosis from their school studies from friends and through the mass media. About 36.1% of the high school students reported that they had learned about TB at school, while only 10.9% of the middle school group reported school as their source of TB knowledge. The rate of students who had learned it from friends or acquaintances were 20% in high school and 14.7% in middle school. As to the mass media ia each individual. medium along made a very small contribution as the sole source of information about tuberculosis, but the mass media played quite a significant role when taken together. The percentage of students who learned about tuberculosis through a combination of two or more of the mass media. (TV, radio, periodicals leaflets, poster, etc.) was 22.2%. With regard to knowledge about some characteristics of tuberculosis, 77.8% of the high school students and 63.5% of the middle school students reported tuberculosis as a curable disease. And tuberculosis was also identified as an infectious disease by 64. 9% of high school students and 44.3% of middle school students KnowlEdge about the significance of the tuberculine test was shown by 65.2% of the high school students and 23. 1 % of the middle school students. And also the majority of students (47. 3% of the high school group and 37.0% of the middle school group) thought that intake of nutritious food was the most efficient way for prevention of the disease and only 13.5% of the high school group and 11.9% of the middle school groups reported that BCG was the most effective preventive measure. with regard to knowledge oncase-finding 81. 0% of the high school students and 72. 3% of the middle school students answered that X-ray examination was most efficient for that purpose.