Publication:

Knowledge regarding hepatitis among students of a selected government school of Trivandrum district, Kerala

Background Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver which is often self-limiting, rarely leading to progressive scarring or hepatocellular carcinoma in case of chronic hepatitis. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge regarding hepatitis among high school students of a selected government school of Trivandrum district.

Methods A cross sectional study was carried out among high school students of a selected girls only government school of Trivandrum district during October to November 2017. Permission was obtained from Institute Ethics Committee (IEC) for the study. Data was entered in MS Excel and analyzed using SPSS. Knowledge score was calculated and categorized as follows. 0 to 5– poor knowledge, 6 to 11– average knowledge, 12 to 16– very good knowledge, 17 to 21– excellent knowledge.

Results A total of 293 students participated in our study. Majority of the students had very good knowledge regarding hepatitis i.e. 64%, 10% had average knowledge, while 19% had poor knowledge. Only 7% had excellent knowledge. The mean knowledge score was 13.7 (C.I 13.44 -14.02).

Conclusions Overall, the knowledge regarding hepatitis among students was very good.