Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices of toxoplasmosis as well as the awareness of its effect on pregnant women among various sociodemographic female students in different majors at the University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among female students from all faculties at the University of Jeddah from November 2021 to July 2022 by using online validated questionnaires through Google Forms. A total of 397 undergraduate female students aged between 19 and 25 years filled out a questionnaire.
Results: A total of 302 (76.1%) students were at non-medical colleges with a mean age of 21.2 ± 1.7 years, were single (359; 90.4%), had a cat (26.2%), and 68 (65.4%) always vaccinated their cat. Overall, 180 (45.3%) of the students had a good awareness level. Exactly 49.1% of students aged 20-21 years had an overall good knowledge compared to 29.5% aged 18-19 years (p-value = 0.025). Also, 73.7% of medical college students had an overall good awareness versus 36.4% of others (p-value = 0.001). Likewise, 73.7% of students who had kids had an overall good awareness level in comparison to 43.9% of those who had no children (p-value = 0.011). Additionally, 47.8% of students with no cats had a good awareness of toxoplasmosis compared to 38.5% of others who had (p-value = 0.046).
Conclusion: Advances in education about the contributory factors to disease transmission or acquisition can immensely reduce infection rates, and thus pregnancy-related side effects like stillbirths.

Key words: Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis, pregnancy, parasitic infections, Saudi Arabia