title: General knowledge and opinion of future health care and non-health care professionals on rare diseases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The debate about whether to dedicate funds to rare diseases (RD) may hinge on the existence of a societal preference for prioritizing rarity. There are scarce studies about the interest of doctors and general society in RD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four groups of future health and non-health professionals were surveyed in a region of Spain to evaluate their opinion on RD. Questions of the study were organized into four groups: general knowledge on RD, prioritization of research of RD, willingness to assign resources to RD and real distribution of resources to RD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 234 students were surveyed. The mean age of the whole study population was 24.0 years and the 83.3% were female. Only around 25% of the survey sample knew the definitions of RD and orphan drugs. Questions related to willingness to assign resources to RD did not reveal statistically significant differences between study groups. Seventy-three per cent considered that the majority of the budget should be used to treat common diseases. However, resident doctors recognized that they have neither experience nor time to diagnose and treat RD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although resident doctors have a little more general knowledge on RD than other surveyed groups, health and non-health future professionals have a low general knowledge on this topic and none of them prioritized the assignment of funds to RD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology (SpainRDR Project), La Rioja Regional Authority, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ramalle-Gómara
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruiz
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Quiñones
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andrés
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Iruzubieta
authors.forename: Josefa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gil-de-Gómez
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics; D006282:Health Personnel; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000191:economics; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D009965:Orphan Drug Production / Q000191:economics; D035583:Rare Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology*; D013030:Spain; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: health education; prioritization; public health; rare disease; survey