Sickle cell disease awareness amongst college students

This descriptive study was designed to investigate if college students attending a midwestern university are aware of the clinical manifestations, treatments, and genetic counseling methods for sickle cell disease. This study was also devised to determine whether or not students, who are more likely to be genetically affected by sickle cell disease, are more or less aware of their sickle cell disease status. Two hundred and fifty- nine (259) University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign (UIUC) students, 18 years and older, enrolled in one of the three following Community Health courses: Community Health Organizations (CHLH 210), Health Care Systems (CHLH 250), and Introduction to Medical Ethics (CHLH 260) were used as study participants. These 259 participants were assessed on their general knowledge of sickle cell disease (SCD). Participants in this study were given a sickle cell disease questionnaire that consisted of 11 questions on sickle cell incidence, prevalence, origin, counseling methods, and knowledge of trait status. Frequency tables, cross-tabulations, and chi-square tests were used to evaluate the variations of existing SCD knowledge among students. Results illustrated that participants did have some general knowledge of sickle cell disease. Study results showed a statistical difference in the response rates for males and females when surveyed on the life expectancy of sickle cell disease (p = .047). Other results showed no statistical differences in response rates between ethnicities group and age