Thalassemia in Indonesia: Current Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Among Young People

There is still an ongoing lack of awareness about thalassemia among Indonesians despite high disease prevalence, and this is associated with poor implementation of preventive and promotive measures. Thalassemia experts argue that education and raising awareness about thalassemia must be done from an early age in order to relieve the heavy disease burden of thalassemia, especially in Indonesia as it is geographically located in the thalassemia belt. In spite of this, there has been limited research on public perception towards thalassemia in Indonesia, particularly among young people.

In this study, the researcher will ask young people in Indonesia between the age of 15-24 who are currently attending high school or university-level education to fill in an online survey. The survey consists of questions about the participants' demographic information as well as their knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) scores towards thalassemia. The study is expected to run from December 2020 to March 2021, with the online survey distributed in January 2021. Data collection will immediately follow, and it will be analyzed using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis using the appropriate statistical tests. The findings gathered from this study will be vital in providing new insight into how the youth sees thalassemia in Indonesia. Such public health information will prove to be important in designing successful thalassemia intervention and education programs for Indonesian youth.