Study of Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pediatric Healthcare Practitioners towards Wilson Disease.

Authors

Hanaa Ahmed Elaraby, Department of Pediatric Hepatology, Gastroenterology, and Nutrition, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt
Magdy Anwar Saber, Department of Pediatric Hepatology, Gastroenterology, and Nutrition, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt
Sally Waheed Elkhadry, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Department, National Liver Institute Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt
Salwa Gamal Attia, Beheira specialized children hospital, Beheira Governorate, Ministry of Health and population, EgyptFollow
Gihan Ahmed Sobhy, Department of Pediatric Hepatology, Gastroenterology, and Nutrition, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt

Abstract

Background; Wilson disease (WD) is a rare genetic disease that occurs secondary to an excess of copper building up in our body, especially in the liver and brain. Diagnosis of WD is challenging. Since it is a curable illness, raising awareness about it among medical professionals is essential. Aim of the work; to assess the awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice of pediatric practitioners towards WD providing useful alerts about this disease and augmenting their knowledge. Participants and Methods ; Five hundred and one (501) pediatric practitioners with varying academic degrees from several Egyptian governmental hospitals participated in this cross-sectional study using a questionnaire applied either by personal contact or online. Data were analyzed and a score response was calculated with full score of 34 marks. Results; the participants had been classified according to their total score of knowledge into three groups; Group of good knowledge (those who achieved 70% or more of the total score) they represented 14.2 % of the total participants. Group of fair knowledge (those with score of 50% to less than 70% of the total score) they represented 60% of the total participants. Group of poor knowledge (less than 50% of the total score) they represented 25.3% of the total participants. While 98.8% of the participants did not perceive cases of WD in their clinical practice, only 1.2% of participants did. Fortunately, most of the participants showed a positive attitude towards WD, they are looking forward to enhance their knowledge about WD in the future. Conclusion; We concluded that there was a defective knowledge and practice among different levels of health care practitioners, despite their positive attitude towards WD.

Article Type

Original Study

Subject Area

Pediatrics

IRB Number

00014014/FWA00034015

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Elaraby, Hanaa Ahmed; Saber, Magdy Anwar; Elkhadry, Sally Waheed; Attia, Salwa Gamal; and Sobhy, Gihan Ahmed (2025) "Study of Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pediatric Healthcare Practitioners towards Wilson Disease.," Journal of Medicine in Scientific Research: Vol. 8: Iss. 4, Article 12.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59299/2537-0928.1473