Knowledge and health beliefs of Jamaican adolescents with sickle cell disease.

Background: The adolescent stage of life is generally perceived to be a challenging period, which may be magnified when a chronic illness such as sickle cell disease (SCD) is present. In this study, we sought to determine the knowledge and health beliefs of Jamaican adolescents with SCD as these factors may impact their self-management skills.

Procedure: An interviewer-administered questionnaire was completed by 117 patients (93 SS:24 SC; 48 males:69 females) between the ages of 15 and 19 years at their routine health maintenance visit to the Sickle Cell Unit, UWI. A maximum total score of 17 could be attained for knowledge. The health belief questions were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale and correlations between knowledge and health beliefs were done. Multiple regression models were created to study the predictors of knowledge and health belief scores. The study was granted ethical approval by UWI/UHWI Ethics Committee.

Results: The mean knowledge score was 64% (range 88-29%). No differences were found in the mean knowledge scores between genotypes and educational attainment but females appeared to score higher than males (P-value <0.05). Most adolescents perceived SCD to be a severe illness and thought it is important for people to know their SCD status. However, almost 30% thought their partners would be hard to convince for testing. Higher knowledge scores predicted positive health beliefs in the adolescent.

Conclusions: Whereas most adolescents were knowledgeable about how the disease was inherited and tested for, further education especially about disease and pregnancy complications is needed.