Milestones of Knowledge Attitude and Practice of Saudi Population Towards H. pylori Infection

Abstract

H. pylori infection implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer. Moreover, little is understood about possible populations' knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to H. pylori. The present study aimed to assess awareness of the Saudi population towards H. pylori. A total of 1324 subjects enrolled, through a well-designed questionnaire that was administered online (through Google online survey). The answers were graded on three-level responses. SPSS software was used for statistical data analysis. The frequency of H. pylori was 613 (45.6%) of participants, as well as 453 (74%) of respondents, were female that former infected with H. pylori, statistically significant (P-value =0.052). About (80.1%) of respondents had known H. pylori, nevertheless, 85.7% agree that H. pylori infection often disappears spontaneously, and (51.2%) didn't know that H. pylori can transmit between family members and (28.2%) were neutral. Fortunately, (83.2%) of subjects were aware of HP symptoms, all correlations were statistically significant. (72%) lack of knowledge regarding HP is associated with nutritional factors, food allergies and food intolerance (71.4%) didn't know that washing hands after using the toilet have a negative association with HP. The Saudi population has a high prevalence of H. pylori, it is well evident that there is confined knowledge about H. pylori among the public, mostly concerning the transmission and its correlation with gastric cancer. General population education must be implemented to increase population awareness towards H. pylori, especially among at-high risk populations.