Assessment of Knowledge Regarding Hepatic Encephalopathy among Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

Abstract

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is one of the major complications of liver cirrhosis (LC). It's defined as a reversible neuropsychiatric event of liver cirrhosis. Up to fifty percent of cirrhotic patients will suffer from at least one attack of HE. Purpose: was to assess knowledge regarding hepatic encephalopathy among patients with liver cirrhosis.Design: a descriptive research design was utilized to achieve the purpose of this study. Setting:The current study was carried out at endemic diseases department and the outpatient clinics of Menoufia University Hospital as well as Liver Institute at Shebin El-Kom, Menoufia Governorate, Egypt. Subjects: A consecutive sample of 100 adult patients with liver cirrhosis. Instruments: One instrument was used for data collection: Structure interview questionnaire instrument. Results: about two thirds of patients were 50 to 60 years and male, the majority of them were married. Almost of patients (93%and 97%) had low total knowledge level about liver cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy and minority of them (1.0%) had good total knowledge level about diet of hepatic encephalopathy. The majority of patients (94.0%) had low total knowledge level. Conclusion: It was concluded that level of knowledge regarding hepatic encephalopathy was poor among study group.Recommendations: Continuous health teaching programs and colored illustrative booklet should be given to all liver cirrhosis patients and their family members to be oriented about liver cirrhosis, hepatic encephalopathy and preventive measures of hepatic encephalopathy.