Correlates of disease-specific knowledge among patients with chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C infection in India

Abstract

Background Patient knowledge about chronic diseases increases health-promoting behaviors and improves clinical outcomes. We assessed this association for patients with chronic viral hepatitis. Methods Untreated patients chronically infected with HBV (n = 500) or HCV (n = 500) were enrolled at 19 centers across India. A survey, adapted from the US CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) questionnaire, was administered at a single visit to assess HBV/HCV knowledge, community disease awareness, treatment quality, and healthcare barriers. We developed the India Hepatitis Knowledge Index (IHKI), where a higher IHKI score (range 0-10) indicates increased hepatitis knowledge. Multivariate regression models evaluated demographic and disease factors. Results The overall mean IHKI score was 5.6 out of 10, with higher scores among patients with HBV (5.9) than HCV (5.3); p \ 0.001. In HBV patients lower IHKI was associated with shorter disease duration, government clinic attendance (p \ 0.0001), fewer personal experiences with HBV (p \ 0.0001), and residing in northern India. Among HCV patients, lower IHKI was associated with shorter disease duration, community (p \ 0.0001) and government clinic attendance (p \ 0.0001), and fewer personal experiences with HCV (p \ 0.0001). Among HBV patients, IHKI was independently associated with disease severity as assessed by MELD score, albumin, and APRI. This association was strongest for HBV patients with elevated ALT and HBV DNA [2000 IU/ml. Among HCV patients, IHKI results had no significant associations with disease severity. Conclusions The association of IHKI with disease underscores the need to understand connections between hepatitis knowledge and progression and may guide efforts to address patient education and awareness of chronic viral hepatitis in India.

Correlates of hepatitis B awareness and disease-specific knowledge among pregnant women in Northern and Central Uganda: a cross-sectional study

“…This, to our knowledge, is one of very few studies to systematically evaluate population HBV and liver cancer-related awareness and knowledge in sub-Saharan Africa, and can contribute to locally-derived evidence to support HBV and liver cancer prevention efforts. Younger age in this study was associated with lower disease awareness and unrelated to comprehensive HBV knowledge, a finding that differs from a recent study in India [33], where younger people tended to have higher HBV knowledge. While this might be reflective of the younger generation access to information via technology in India, the observed lack of association in our population may be due to lower access to technology-transmitted knowledge than in India.…”

Factors Associated with Self Care Practices among Patients with Hepatitis C Virus

“…Poor level of knowledge was found among manual works and patients who had insufficient income. This finding is supported by Tamayo et al (2016) (54) who mentioned that people in low and middle income countries remain without access to information about disease prevention, diagnostics procedures, care and treatment of HCV. Moreover, the results showed no statistically significant difference between total patient's knowledge levels and patients' sex, marital status and residence.…”

Are patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B aware of their disease?

“…The survey results emphasized that patients infected hepatitis B had little basic knowledge about the disease and its transmission routes and that more education was warranted. [10] We think that some patients either ignore their illnesses due to the fear of being isolated from society or conceal their condition because of the challenges encountered in social life and job applications. In a study evaluating the levels of knowledge and stigma about hepatitis B infection among infected and non-infected people in China, 45% of healthy individuals were found to be anxious about having a close contact with sick people and 39% felt discomfort about sharing their food with infected people.…”

“…Similar results were found in studies abroad. [8][9][10] The present study aims to evaluate the knowledge of patients with hepatitis B about the passageway, prevention and treatment of their diseases, to eliminate the deficiency information and thus contribute to reducing the spread of the infection.…”