| Abstract
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The objectives of this descriptive study were assessing the health knowledge of 625 male and female freshmen attending Hashemite University in 2005--06; comparing knowledge differences as related to gender, place of residence (city, village), and educational track in high school (scientific, non-scientific); determining health knowledge sources; and reviewing all curricula for grades 1--12. This study filled a gap, as no prior research described Jordanian college students' health knowledge. Use of the Ecological Model as a theoretical base distinguished this study from similar research in the professional literature. The cross-cultural adaptation process was performed to translate the Health Knowledge Inventory test into Arabic. Classroom sections were chosen through cluster random sampling. Content validity, overall internal consistency reliability (r = 0.83) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.88) were estimated. Findings revealed (a) students were least knowledgeable about communicable disease and most informed about nutrition, (b) interactions among gender, place of residence and stream for mean scores of general health knowledge and of knowledge of 11 specific health areas were not significant, except for the interaction between gender and stream, (c) significant differences existed in general health knowledge as related to gender and stream, (d) mean scores for females were significantly higher than for males in the areas of nutrition, accident/safety; consumer, environmental, mental, and sexual health, (e) mean scores for scientific stream students were significantly higher than for non-scientific stream students for nine specific health areas and not for the areas of substance use/abuse or aging and death. Media was the most common source of knowledge for all areas, except for human sexuality and nutrition. The most common source of knowledge about human sexuality and nutrition were personal reading and mother, respectively. The category of peer was the least common source for six health areas, whereas father was the least common source of knowledge about human sexuality. Approximately eight percent of curricular content is dedicated to 11 health areas across grades 1--12. The two health areas most emphasized are nutrition and environmental health; no emphasis was given to either human sexuality or aging and death. The researcher offered recommendations for practice and future research.
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