Awareness and knowledge of familial Mediterranean fever among medical scope students in Syrian universities: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Familial Mediterranean fever is an autoinflammatory autosomal recessive disorder common among individuals of Mediterranean descent. It is characterized by recurrent episodes of fever accompanied by peritonitis, pleurisy, pericarditis, and/or arthritis, sometimes accompanied by an erysipelas-like rash. Mimicking manifestation of other inflammatory conditions and the diversity of symptoms leads to insufficient knowledge and understanding. General knowledge about this disease is considered low in most populations, but this bears greater consequences in people with high incidence rates. This study investigates the knowledge of familial Mediterranean fever among a group of medical students in public and private Syrian universities. A cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2022, and an international standard-based electronic questionnaire was adopted. The study included 758 current undergraduate medical scope students from public and private universities in Syria. The survey used for this study included inquiries made to assess awareness using global standards. It was divided into 2 sections, with 7 questions focusing on sociodemographic characteristics and 17 questions assessing the students' understanding of Familial Mediterranean fever. Our analysis showed strong correlations between the knowledge of Familial Mediterranean fever and certain specialization, college, academic year, and marital status. The mean score of answers was 9.39 out of 17 for all participants. The mean score of answers for medical students was 10.01 out of 17, while it was 8.81 for pharmaceutical students and 6.51 for dental students. These differences were statistically significant, p-value <0.001. This means medical students know better than pharmaceutical students, who already have better knowledge than dental students. We conclude that medical scope students' knowledge about the disease of Familial Mediterranean fever and its management is ineffective, especially among dental students, even in a country with high prevalence rates for Familial Mediterranean fever like Syria.