20Jan 2017

CELIAC DISEASE AWARENESS AMONG PHYSICIANS IN SAUDI ARABIA: AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY.

  • Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
  • Division of Gastroenterology, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Background: Although Celiac disease (CD) prevalence has progressively increased in the last 20 years worldwide, affecting as high as 2.5% of population in Saudi Arabia, the level of physician’s knowledge of this disease has not been reported. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge of CD among Saudi physicians who face this common health problem in their clinics. Methodology: We conducted this cross-sectional survey of 286 consultant physicians within 6 medical subspecialties and were based in 6 different medical centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the period from October 2013 to February 2014. A special questionnaire to test physician’s knowledge of celiac disease was designed based on the relevant literature, and it was validated through a pilot study prior to data collection. Results: In the physician survey only 131 (46%) physicians returned the questionnaires.The majority of our respondents had more than 10 years of practice (49.62%). There were several significant findings from the participants’ response to the questionnaire. For example, Celiac disease is common in the west as in Saudi Arabia but only 23 (17.56%) out of 131 were not aware of this fact. Furthermore, 29 (22.14%) out of the 131 physicians did not know that intestinal biopsy is a mandatory test to confirm celiac disease. Conclusion:There isa significant percentage of physicians who did not have enough knowledge about CD.Thismight affect the early detection of the disease and the patients’ quality of life negatively.

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[Mohammed A. Aljebreen, Abdallah F. Alfozan, Sayyaf S. Alnasser, Moath M. Fairaq, Salem K. Albalawi, Mohammed E. Alqahtani and Abdulrahman M. Aljebreen. (2017); CELIAC DISEASE AWARENESS AMONG PHYSICIANS IN SAUDI ARABIA: AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (Jan). 1527-1534] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

Mohammed Eid Alqahtani
Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DOI:

Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/2917      
DOI URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/2917

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