Student Information Level and Users Internet About Parasitic Diseases

The epidemiological situation of parasitic diseases in Kyrgyzstan is unfavorable, especially for echinococcosis and alveococcosis, although there is a tendency to reduce the incidence of enterobiasis and ascariasis. Students are a risk contingent since they do not conduct systematic examinations to identify a particular parasitic pathology, as is done in children and adolescent age groups. In addition, the main problem of the prevalence of parasitic diseases is not resolved – the preventive focus. The purpose of this work was: 1) a survey of first-year students of the medical faculty of KRSU and respondents from the Internet community to assess the level of awareness and risk of infection with parasitic diseases; 2) prevention: the development of a self-help program for parasitic diseases, as well as the publication and distribution of an information leaflet on the most common parasitic diseases (giardiasis, echinococcosis, alveococcosis, ascariasis, and enterobiasis). A specially developed questionnaire for assessing the awareness and risk of infection with parasitic diseases included questionnaire data (5 questions) and 15 questions for assessing the risk factors for parasitic diseases among respondents and assessing the level of awareness of the ways they were infected. The comparative sample included: 120 first-year students of adolescent age (18–20 years old) from the medical faculty of KRSU specializing in General Medicine and 202 people aged 18–25 from the Internet community. By gender, among the surveyed students, girls predominated — 60%, boys accounted for 40%. Conversely, male respondents dominated the Internet sample (60%), and 40% belonged to women. The survey involved students living in the city (70%), and only 30% — in the villages. 91% of Internet respondents lived in cities, and 9% of them in villages. The questionnaire of first-year students of the Faculty of Medicine of KRSU and respondents from the Internet community reflected knowledge gaps regarding parasitic diseases transmitted primarily by water, alimentary and contact-household. For the effective prevention of parasitic diseases, we have developed a self-help program addressed to students and information leaflets