Abstract:
Introduction: Gastritis is a common inflammatory disease condition. The most
common cause is Helicobacter pylori infection. It can be affected the quality of life
as well as end-up with life threading conditions such as gastric cancer.
Undergraduates of Faculty of allied health sciences are the future health
professional and they should have adequate knowledge on it to educate the
community.
Objective: To assess the knowledge on gastritis and the associated factors on it
among undergraduates of Faculty of Allied Health Sciences University of Jaffna.
Methodology: This was descriptive cross-sectional study done among the nursing,
pharmacy and medical laboratory sciences undergraduates of Faculty of Allied
Health Sciences University of Jaffna. Study population was 649 and stratified
random sampling method was used to find the sample of 426. Data collection was
done by using the pretested self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed by
using SPSS 25 (Statistical Package of Social Science) and descriptive statistics was
used to describe the variables, and chi squared test was used to find the association.
Results: Out of 426 participants 388 participants had responded (response rate:
91.07%). Within those 67.5% participants were female and 27.8% participants were
studying nursing, 35.6% were studying pharmacy and 36.6% were studying
medical laboratory sciences. According to the results 43% participants had been
diagnosed with gastritis. In the findings 12.4% had adequate knowledge, 54.6% had
moderately adequate knowledge and 33% had inadequate knowledge about
gastritis. Mean of the knowledge was 59.41 with the range from 15 to 100. The
knowledge on gastritis had significantly associated with age (p=0.000), nationality
(p=0.027), Religion (p=0.017), and academic year (p=0.000).
Conclusion: Knowledge on gastritis of the undergraduates were moderately
adequate level. Knowledge on transmission of Helicobacter pylori with faecal
contamination, diagnostic test of gastritis and medical nutrition therapy had been
noticed in low level.
