Knowledge and Awareness about Dyspepsia Symptoms among Medical Outpatients in a Tertiary Hospital
Abstract:
Dyspepsia is a common clinical presentation, however people frequently ignore the early symptoms until when it becomes severe. The aim of this study was to determine patients’ knowledge and awareness about dyspepsia. A systematic sampling was use to recruit 401 patients. A standard questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic, clinical details, and risk factors about dyspepsia from the study patients. A twenty-one item questionnaire with four domains (dyspeptic symptoms, causes of dyspepsia, disease process during dyspepsia and treatment approach) were used to assess patients’ knowledge on dyspepsia. Patients knowledge scores were converted into percentages and those with scores ≥ 50% have adequate knowledge while those with <50% have inadequate knowledge. The results showed that up to 254(63.3%) had inadequate knowledge, while only 147(36.7%) had adequate knowledge on dyspepsia. Using a multivariable model, only education (P<0.001) and income (P=0.001), were significantly associated with patients’ knowledge on dyspepsia. Age, gender, marital status, religion and employment were not significantly associated with knowledge (all P-values >0.05 ). Our study documented that majority of the participants had inadequate knowledge on dyspepsia. Both education and income were significantly associated with patient knowledge score.References:
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