ABSTRACT

Vaccination and education play an important role in prevention of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

In our study, a survey consisting of 27 questions was filled out face to face to evaluate the knowledge level of our patients, who were infected with HBV. SPSS 15.0 for Windows was used for statistical analysis.

A total of 105 patients with average age 43.7±12.4 participated in the survey. 63.8% of the participants were male, 69.5% were hepatitis B carrier and 30.5% were chronic hepatitis B. 20% of the patients became aware of their disease during blood donation and 16.2% have been informed during pre-surgical routine tests. Most attributed transmission routes were blood and sexual contact, however kissing, sneezing, common use of kitchenettes like glass, plate, fork, sharing the house with infected patient were the other ways for transmission. 85.7%, 65.7% and 61.9% of the patients had information about some of the complications of HBV like cirhosis, liver cancer and liver failur, respectively. There was no statistically significant relation between education level of the patients and their awareness about possible consequences of the disease. 33.3% of the cases believed that scouring the food was one of the ways of preventing the disease and there was no relation between this wrong belief and education level of the patients. 72.9% of the patients told that the disease was curable and 78% of them reported that the aim of the treatment was to stop the progression of the disease. 13.8% of the patients thought that herbal treatments might be a solution in treatment of the disease.

The knowledge level of the patients infected by HBV is obviously insufficient regardless of the patients’ education level. It is extremely important to concentrate on catch-up works for society not only for the patients to deal with the negative consequences of the disease on their social life, but also for follow-up and treatment of the patients.