Table 1. Knowledge of disease related-concepts and genetic facts of undergraduate students with percentages of correct answers.
| Total population
(n=350) |
Private institutions
(n=170) |
Public institutions
(n=180) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disease-related concepts | % correct | p-Value a | % correct | p-Value a | % correct | p-Value a |
| 1. Some diseases are caused by genes,
environment and lifestyle. (T) |
87 | <0.001 | 89 | <0.001 | 85 | <0.001 |
| 2. A gen is a disease. (F) | 61 | <0.001 | 63 | <0.001 | 65 | <0.001 |
| 3. Healthy parents can have a child with an
inherited disease. (T) |
74 | <0.001 | 76 | <0.001 | 71 | <0.001 |
| 4. A person with altered (mutated) gene may be
completely healthy. (T) |
55 | 0.069 | 57 | 0.011 | 53 | 0.443 |
| 5. All serious diseases are inherited. (F) | 56 | 0.019 | 54 | <0.001 | 59 | 0.014 |
| 6. The child of a person with an inherited disease
will always have the same disease. (F) |
58 | 0.002 | 58 | <0.001 | 58 | 0.032 |
| 7. Altered (mutated) genes can cause disease. (T) | 84 | <0.001 | 88 | <0.001 | 81 | <0.001 |
| 8. A genetic test can tell you if you have a higher
chance to develop a specific disease (T) |
80 | <0.001 | 82 | <0.001 | 78 | <0.001 |
| Average percentage for this section | 68.3 | 70 | 68.4 | |||
| Genetic facts | ||||||
| 1. You can see a gene with the naked eye. (F) | 59 | <0.001 | 58 | <0.001 | 61 | 0.004 |
| 2. Genes are instructions for making proteins,
which help the body grow and work properly. (T) |
57 | 0.008 | 61 | 0.004 | 54 | 0.357 |
| 3. A gene is a piece of DNA. (T) | 77 | <0.001 | 74 | <0.001 | 80 | <0.001 |
| 4. Genes are inside cells. (T) | 69 | <0.001 | 71 | <0.001 | 71 | <0.001 |
| 5. A chromosome contains many genes. (T) | 78 | <0.001 | 77 | <0.001 | 79 | <0.001 |
| 6. Genes determine traits such as height, eye
color and facial appearance. (T) |
84 | <0.001 | 82 | <0.001 | 86 | <0.001 |
| 7. A person has thousands of genes. (T) | 73 | <0.001 | 74 | <0.001 | 73 | <0.001 |
| 8. Identical twins have different sets of genes. (F) | 49 | 0.915 | 47 | 0.307 | 53 | 0.443 |
| 9. Humans have 20 pairs of chromosomes. (F) | 58 | 0.004 | 53 | 0.027 | 61 | 0.004 |
| 10. Parents pass both copies of each
chromosome to their child. (F) |
45 | 0.054 | 49 | 0.610 | 41 | 0.014 |
| Average percentage for this section | 64.9 | 63.8 | 68.6 | |||
| Overall average percentage | 66.8 | 66.6 | 67 | |||
a p-values for determining answers provided by chance were calculated using Pearson’s Chi squared test. T, true; F, false.