Abstract
BackgroundHepatitis B (HB) is a serious global public health problem. This study aims to evaluate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards Hepatitis B (HB) among healthy population of Quetta city, Pakistan.MethodsA cross sectional, descriptive study was undertaken. One thousand healthy individuals (aged 18 years and above) were approached for the study. KAP towards HB was assessed by using a pre validated questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for elaborating patients’ demographic characteristics. Inferential statistics (Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test) were used for comparison while Spearman’s rho correlation was used to identify association between the study variables. All analyses were performed using SPSS 16.0.ResultsOut of 1000 distributed questionnaires, 780 were returned with a response rate of 78.0%. Four hundred and twenty (53.8%) respondents were male with mean age of 32.76 ± 9.40 year. Two hundred and eight (26.7%) had intermediate level of education and 354 (45.4%) were unemployed. Mean scores for knowledge, attitude and practice were 8.74 ± 2.7, 3.72 ± 1.2 and 2.76 ± 1.1 respectively. Significant and positive linear correlations between knowledge-attitude (r = 0.296, p < 0.01) knowledge-practice (r = 0.324, p < 0.01) and attitude-practice (r = 0.331, p < 0.01) were observed. Area of residence (locality) was the only variables significantly associated with mean KAP of the study respondents.ConclusionResults from the current study heighted poor KAP of healthy population towards HB. The positive linear correlations reaffirms that better knowledge can lead to positive attitude and subsequently in good practices. This will further help in prevention and management of HB. Therefore, extensive health educational campaign should be provided to general population and especially to the residents of rural areas.
Highlights
Hepatitis B (HB) is a serious global public health problem
The major source of information regarding HB was from family/friend/neighbors 284 (36.4%), followed by 138 (17.7%) by HB information leaflets/brochures and posters
Results from the current study revealed that general population is in habit of making independent assessments of their current health status and were favoring different health systems resulting in medical pluralism
Summary
Hepatitis B (HB) is a serious global public health problem. This study aims to evaluate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards Hepatitis B (HB) among healthy population of Quetta city, Pakistan. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 reported HB to infect nearly 2 billion people around the globe. Out of those 2 billion, 350 million suffered from chronic, lifelong infection [1]. The private health sector serves nearly 70% of the population, whereas the public sector comprises more than 10,000 health facilities, ranging from basic health units (BHUs) to tertiary referral centers [16]. Within this context, Quetta is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan.
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