Volume 26, Issue 129, November 2022

The level of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus awareness and its barriers, Qassim, Saudi Arabia

Ahmad Alkhdairi^1♦, Ayman Alharbi², Suliman Alotaieq¹, Talal Alharkan¹, Abdullah Alsaeed¹, Abdullah Almithn¹, Abdulsalam Alnawfal¹, Sami Alrasheedi¹, Musa Alrasheedi¹, Feras Aljameeli¹

¹Department of Medicine, Unaizah College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Unaizah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
²Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Medicine, Unaizah College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Unaizah, KSA

ABSTRACT

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a multi systemic multi factorial autoimmune disease. Organ's damage and failure may occur during life time. Severe SLE presentations may lead to life threatening complications even at younger age. Therefore, general populations need to increase their awareness about SLE to reduce SLE complications. The purpose of this study to assess the levels of SLE awareness and the barriers that affect the SLE awareness among Qassim University members, Saudi Arabia, 2022. The items of the questionnaire used in this study includes socio demographic characteristics, source of SLE information, knowledge about the symptoms and treatment of SLE, assessment about the awareness toward SLE and barriers to SLE awareness. Sample size that has been collected during this study was 206 participants. The overall mean awareness score was 3.08 out of 10 points with a poor awareness level compromising of 82.3% while only 17.7% had good awareness. Factors associated with increased awareness were being a female or being a medical student, etc.

Keywords: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, SLE, Awareness, knowledge, barriers

Medical Science, 2022, 26, ms493e2528

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v26i129/ms493e2528

Published: 27 November 2022