Knowledge and Awareness of Metabolic Inborn Errors among Male and Female Students at King Abdulaziz University – Rabigh.
Context: Inborn errors of metabolism are a large group of rare genetic diseases. The incidence of inborn metabolic errors, collectively, as high as 1 in 2500 live births, but it varies greatly and depends on the population. Presentation is usually in the neonatal period or infancy but can occur at any time. Diagnosis does not require extensive knowledge of biochemical pathways or individual metabolic diseases. Aims: To assess the students’ knowledge about IEM and to plan future improvement in the curriculum if needed and to plan and organize awareness campaigns. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 undergraduate medical and non-medical students. Methods and Material: The study included 400 medical and non-medical students (including 202 males & 198 females) from the Rabigh campus. The questionnaire was constructed and translated into Arabic. The frequencies of different categories were evaluated for their statistical significance. Results: Among male students, trivial differences were observed between the answers of medical and non-medical students, both groups agreed on the fact that metabolic disorders can be caused by an enzyme deficiency. However, 36% of medical students and 43% of non-medical students did not know that metabolic disorders can be diagnosed prenatally. As regards the female students, 43% of non-medical students accepted that diagnosis usually needs invasive procedures, while 43 % of medical students refused that concept. On comparison of male and female students, 50 % of male students had no idea of the usefulness of gene therapy as a tool for management, yet 43 % of females agreed on the importance of gene therapy. Conclusion: More efforts should be exerted to raise the level of awareness and improve the knowledge among both medical and non-medical students and the community in Saudi Arabia by increasing the taught material regarding genetic diseases in universities and even introduce it in school.