Based on these statistics, Pakistan is classified as a region of ‘ intermediate risk’ towards HB by WHO. In metropolitan cities like Karachi, the prevalence of HB is reported lower (2-5%) as compared with the rural areas which can range from where 30-35%. The pervasiveness of HB ranges between 7 to 20% in Pakistani population and varies from region to region. Similar to what is reported worldwide, the incidence of HB infection is on continuous rise in Pakistan. Furthermore, HB is widespread in the Asia Pacific region and 10 to 15 million of the population suffer from this disease. Although HB is classified as ‘ disease of priority,’ there is an incessant increase in detection of new cases worldwide. HB is a confronting ailment and results in 0.6 million deaths annually. Moreover, an estimated 15–40% of chronic HB carriers were susceptible to develop liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Furthermore, out of those 2 billion, 350 million suffered from chronic, lifelong infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 reported HB to infect nearly 2 billion people around the globe. Hepatitis B (HB) is a serious and common infectious disease of the liver. Therefore, extensive health educational campaign should be provided to general population and especially to the residents of rural areas. This will further help in prevention and management of HB. The positive linear correlations reaffirms that better knowledge can lead to positive attitude and subsequently in good practices. Results from the current study heighted poor KAP of healthy population towards HB. Area of residence (locality) was the only variables significantly associated with mean KAP of the study respondents. 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. Two hundred and eight (26.7%) had intermediate level of education and 354 (45.4%) were unemployed. Four hundred and twenty (53.8%) respondents were male with mean age of 32.76 ± 9.40 year. ![]() Out of 1000 distributed questionnaires, 780 were returned with a response rate of 78.0%. All analyses were performed using SPSS 16.0. 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. Descriptive statistics were used for elaborating patients’ demographic characteristics. KAP towards HB was assessed by using a pre validated questionnaire. One thousand healthy individuals (aged 18 years and above) were approached for the study. MethodsĪ cross sectional, descriptive study was undertaken. This study aims to evaluate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards Hepatitis B (HB) among healthy population of Quetta city, Pakistan. Hepatitis B (HB) is a serious global public health problem.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |