Assessment of Health-Related Knowledge and Practices among Patients with Peptic Ulcer

Background: Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is defined as an ulcerative disorder in the lower esophagus, lower portion of the stomach, and upper duodenum. It is a serious global health problem. Appropriate care for peptic ulcer patients becomes dynamic when physicians affect their responsibility meaningfully and competently through assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. Aim: This study aimed to assess health-related knowledge and practices of patients with peptic ulcer at Abha, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: It is a descriptive cross sectional approach that targeted all accessible patients with peptic ulcer attending or admitted to the study settings during the period from January 2019 to March 2019. A direct interview questionnaire constructed by researchers was used for data collection. It was composed of three parts (patients' socio-demographic and clinical data- PU patient's knowledge interview tool, and data regarding patients' health-related practices). Results: A total 155 patients with peptic ulcer, aged from 20 to 60 years were included. 52.3% of the patients were males and 44.5% were not working. Stomach pain was the most frequent symptom (88.4%) followed by hyperacidity (60.6%). Regarding the awareness of patients about their disease, 87.7% of them knew about symptoms of peptic ulcer followed with drugs and treatment methods (81.3%). In total 18.1% of the patients had good knowledge regarding peptic ulcer. Conclusions & recommendations: The study revealed that patients' awareness level about their disease was poor especially regarding the nature of the disease, at risk population and its complications. As for health-related practice, the majority of patients had unhealthy behavior such as having drinks which may aggravate hyperacidity status. Also adherence to prescribed medication is not high and some have un-prescribed medications.