Assessment of hepatitis-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices on quality of life with the moderating role of internalized stigma among hepatitis B-positive patients in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Aim: This study aimed to assess the Pakistani hepatitis B patients’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards hepatitis management and the impact of self-management on the quality of life of hepatitis B patients as well as the moderating role of stigmatization.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used, and the data was collected from a total of 432 hepatitis B positive patients through a self-designed questionnaire. The studied subjects consisted of men (n = 205, 47%), women (n = 165, 38%), and transgender (n = 62, 14%). The obtained data were statistically analyzed using SPSS software version 26.0 for Windows.

Results: The mean age of the study participants was 48. Knowledge has a significant positive relationship with hepatitis self-management and quality of life, whereas knowledge has a negative relationship with stigmatization. Furthermore, multivariate analysis revealed that men were more knowledgeable about the disease than women and transgender people (6.14 ± 2.08 vs. 3.23 ± 1.61 vs. 1.03 ± 0.73, F = 8.2**, p = .000). On the scale of attitude and practice, significant gender differences were found. Women had more experience with hepatitis self-management than men or transgender (4.21 ± 13.0 vs. 2.17 ± 6.02 vs. 0.37 ± 0.31, F = 6.21**, p = .000). The regression analysis showed that self-management has a positive association with quality of life (B = 0.36, p = .001). The moderation analysis revealed that stigmatization negatively moderates the relationship between self-management and quality of life (B = −0.53, p = .001).

Conclusion: Generally, patients had good knowledge about the disease and its self-management. However, a societal and community-level awareness campaign should be organized on the quality of life and stigmatization of people with chronic illness regarding their human rights, dignity, and physical, mental, and social well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Hepatitis
• knowledge
• management
• quality of life
• stigmatization

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Associate Prof. Dr Azhar Abbas Khan, Faculty of Entomology, College of Agriculture, The University of Layyah, for the assistance in proof read and editing English Language. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3227-5186

Authors contribution

Each author has a significant contribution into the manuscript.

Data availability

The data will be provided by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.