Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the association between patient’s knowledge of Hepatitis-B and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). Methods: A cross sectional, descriptive study was undertaken with 390 hepatitis-B patients attending two public hospitals in Quetta City, Pakistan. Knowledge of hepatitis-B was assessed using a prevalidated questionnaire. European Quality of Life scale was used for the assessment of HRQoL. Descriptive analysis was used to elaborate patients’ demographic characteristics while inferential statistics were applied to report the association among study variables. Spearman’s rho correlation was used to identify the association between variables. Results: Out of 390, (230, 59.5 %) were males and the mean age of the subjects was 36.2 ± 9.2 years. One hundred and three (26 %) had primary level of education and 109 (27.9 %) were employees in the private sector. Eighty four (21 %) had a monthly income of between 10001-15000 Pakistan rupees (1 PKR = 0.0115527 USD) with 272 (69.7 %) respondents resident in urban areas. Mean HRQoL and Hepatitis-B related knowledge (HBRK) scores were categorized as poor (0.37± 0.3) and (8.52 ± 2.7) respectively. The correlation coefficient between HRQoL and HBRK was -0.102 (p < 0.001), indicating a week negative association between the study variables. Conclusion: The findings indicate a negative association between Hepatitis-B related knowledge and HRQoL. Therefore, providing disease-related knowledge to patients does not necessarily improve HRQoL. More attention should be given to identify individual factors that affect HRQoL among patients with Hepatitis-B.
Highlights
Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is defined as an individual’s perceived quality of life representing satisfaction in those areas of life which are likely to be affected by health status [1]
Results from the current study reported a weak negative association between HB-related knowledge and HRQoL of respondents
The present study suggests that HB related knowledge has a negative impact on HRQoL in patients suffering from HB
Summary
Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is defined as an individual’s perceived quality of life representing satisfaction in those areas of life which are likely to be affected by health status [1]. Health Related Quality of Life is used to measure health status of healthy individuals to demonstrate the overall health position of the society. Existing literature reveals that patient with chronic diseases have poor HRQoL [3,4,5]. Within this context, Hepatitis-B (HB) affects more than 2 billion people worldwide, of these, 350 million have chronic, lifelong infection [6]. The study was aimed to examine the association between disease related knowledge and HRQoL in patients with HB. Patients who had co-morbidities, immigrants from other countries and pregnant women were excluded
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