A Survey of Knowledge, Risk Perceptions and Behavioral Intentions among Students of Health and Paramedic Schools of Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Regarding Hepatitis B, 2015

Viral hepatitis is one of the most important health problems. Hepatitis B is one of the most serious threats to the professionals in health centers. This study was conducted with aim to determine the knowledge, risk perception and behavioral intention of students of health and allied health schools of Golestan University of Medical Sciences regarding Hepatitis.
This is a descriptive-analytical study and was done on 188 students of the faculty of Health and Paramedical sciences which were selected by systematic random sampling. Data gathered by a questionnaire was containing demographic information and knowledge, the public perceived risk, perceived risk of personal and behavioral intentions regarding Hepatitis B. Data were collected by the questionnaire and were analyzed by using SPSS 18 software and statistical tests of Mann-Whithney and Kruskal Wallis and Pearson Test.
The mean age of the participants was 21.31±3.44 years. The score of knowledge of students was 4.49±1.86, the score of risk perceived was 30.66±3.70 and the score of intention was 12.53±3.11. Findings indicated by Mann-Whitney test, the average score of that the perceived risk in terms of gender (p=0.02), risk perception (p=0.045) and intention (p=0.038) to college, and Kruskal-Wallis test showed the mean score of risk perception (p=0.038) and behavioral intention (p=0.043) was significantly associated with the variable of semester. Pearson test results also showed the correlation between knowledge and perceived risk (r=0.28, p=0.001), with the intention of perceived risk (r=0.19, p=0.01), behavioral intention with age (r=0.20, p=0.006), significant correlation was obtained.
According to this study, knowledge and risk perception and intention of the students about hepatitis B is not enough and suitable. Therefore, the need for more training in this field is an essential to improve the knowledge of the students about Hepatitis B, mainly with using of the novel massaging channels such as mobile phone messaging or social networks including Telegram, Viber and etc.