ABSTRACT
Heart disease is referred to as a “silent killer or slow poison”. This is because it creeps in unaware, kills slowly without the victim’s being aware of its existence in the body at the initial stage. Anyone, including children, can develop heart disease and many have fallen victim because of poor knowledge. This research work therefore aimed at investigating the ‘the knowledge of contributory factors for Health Disease among students of the University of Benin’.
To guide the researcher in carrying out this study, four research questions were raised and in a bid to answer the research questions, the descriptive survey research design was used. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 200 respondents, and a reliability of 0.08 was realized. The analyzed data using frequency counts and percentages, revealed that majority of the respondents have a good knowledge of heart disease, it was discovered too that the respondents are poorly aware of the causes of heart disease, and it was discovered that they are familiar with the problems of heart disease as it affects them. it was discovered that eating healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining healthy body weight for ones height, quitting smoking and reduction in intake of alcohol among others are ways that heart disease can be managed.
The recommendations based on findings have it that health education campaigns about heart disease should be organized by the health department of the University of Benin. There will be a need to create more jingles on air in English and other dialects to promote knowledge and awareness of heart disease and preventive measures that can be taken, The University should make it mandatory for students to take at least one health education course centered on diseases and preventive measures at 100 level just like other GST courses.
