Abstract
BackgroundHepatitis-B is a life threatening infection resulting in 0.6 million deaths annually. The prevalence of Hepatitis-B is rising in Pakistan and furthermore, there is paucity of information about Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Hepatitis-B patients. Better disease related knowledge is important to have positive attitude and that will bring the good practices which will prevent the further spread of infection. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice of Hepatitis-B Patients in Quetta city, Pakistan.MethodsA cross-sectional, descriptive study was undertaken with 390 Hepatitis-B patients attending two public hospitals in Quetta city, Pakistan. Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding Hepatitis-B were assessed using a pre-validated questionnaire containing 20, 7 and 8 questions for knowledge, attitude and practice, respectively. Descriptive statistics were used for elaborating patients’ demographic characteristics and mean scores for knowledge, attitude and practice of Hepatitis-B patients. Inferential statistics (Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis tests, p < 0.05) were used to establish association between study variables. Spearman’s rho correlation was used to identify the association between the knowledge, attitude and practice scores.ResultsOut of 390 patients, 223 (57.2%) were males, with the majority (136, 34.9%) in the age group of 38–47 years. Mean age of the study cohort was 32.6 ± 9.5 years. One hundred and four (26.7%) had primary level education, with 110 (28.2%) working in the private sector. The mean scores for knowledge, attitude and practice were 8.48 ± 2.7, 3.87 ± 1.2 and 2.37 ± 1.0, respectively. Education, locality and occupation were significantly associated with knowledge, attitude and practice scores. Significant positive linear correlations between knowledge-attitude (r = 0.466, p < 0.01) knowledge-practice (r = 0.221, p < 0.01) and attitude-practice (r = 0.224, p < 0.01) were also observed from the study results.ConclusionThe findings of this study indicate that Hepatitis-B patients lack a basic understanding of infection control and management. This can result in the further spread of Hepatitis-B infection. Extensive health education campaigns should be provided to the patients in the hospital as well as in community settings for rational control and management of the disease.
Highlights
HB is a life threatening infection resulting in 0.6 million deaths annually [4,5]
To what is reported worldwide, the prevalence of HB in Pakistan ranges between 7 to 20% based on different regions [6,9,10,11,12,13,14]
Registered HB patients from two public hospitals (Sandamen Provisional Hospital and Bolan Medical Complex Hospital) in Quetta city, Pakistan were included for the study
Summary
Hepatitis-B is a life threatening infection resulting in 0.6 million deaths annually. The prevalence of Hepatitis-B is rising in Pakistan and there is paucity of information about Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Hepatitis-B patients. Better disease related knowledge is important to have positive attitude and that will bring the good practices which will prevent the further spread of infection. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice of Hepatitis-B Patients in Quetta city, Pakistan. Hepatitis-B (HB) is a serious infectious disease of the liver, infecting 2 billion people around the globe; of these, 350 million will develop lifelong chronic infection [1]. HB is a life threatening infection resulting in 0.6 million deaths annually [4,5]. In urban areas of Pakistan, the prevalence of HB is reportedly lower (25%) than rural areas, where the prevalence is reported to range between 30-35% [11,13,14]
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