Study and Comparison the Knowledge of Medical and Public Health Students about Control and Treatment of TB with (DOTS) Strategy

Introduction: Training medical students and prepare them for diagnosis, treatment and care of diseases, is the main goal of medical education. According to importance of adapting educational content to the needs of society and the high incidence of infectious diseases in the country, decided to study the knowledge of medical students and public health students about Tuberculosis (TB) and Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS), because they are the main stakeholders in the field at future. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study using a questionnaire consisting of 40 questions related to the knowledge necessary measures in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (DOTS), 90 students of public health and medical students who were taken by the stratified random sampling with Using a reliable and valid questionnaire. The results of the tests were analyzed by descriptive and analytical tests in SPSS11.5 software. Results: Average knowledge of public health students about TB was (9.24 +/- 9.091) of total 20 and kowledge of medical students was (8.67 +/- 1.954). The mean of knowledge, diagnosis and treatment of Public health students was (16.91 +/- 3.168) of total 40 and of medical students was (16.42 +/- 3.720). There was a significant linear correlation between general and technical students information about TB (r=0.681, p=0.000). T test showed there is not significant relationship between gender and field of study and students knowledge about TB; however, the infromation level in women was higher than in men. Conclusion: Knowledge of medical and health students about TB and DOTS is not in acceptable level and it is necessary to revise the education of tuberculosis in medical and health school.