Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Evaluating the Perception and Awareness of Patients Regarding Ovarian Cysts in Peshawar, Pakistan

Saira Azhar¹ , Iffat Almas¹, Nisar-ur-Rehman¹, Sarfraz Ahmed², Mohammad Ismail Tajik³, Ghulam Murtaza¹

¹Department of Pharmacy, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan; ²School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; ³Department of Pharmacy, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Saira Azhar Email: drsairaazhar@ciit.net.pk Tel:+923076724266

Received: 22 February 2014 Accepted: 29 June 2014 Published: 18 August 2014

Citation: Azhar S, Almas I, Nisar-ur-Rehman , Ahmed S, Tajik MI, Murtaza G. Evaluating the Perception and Awareness of Patients Regarding Ovarian Cysts in Peshawar, Pakistan. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(8):1361-1366 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i8.23

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate patients’ perception regarding ovarian cyst as well as their awareness of the symptoms and health management of the disease.

Methods: A quantitative research approach was used to conduct this study. Patients were selected from the Gynecology wards, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar and a questionnaire was designed to evaluate the patients’ knowledge and awareness.

Results: When women were asked if they had prior knowledge about the ovarian cyst, 37 (58.7 %) responded that they were first told by the physician during their visit to the clinic or hospital while the patients responded, “Still don’t know” are 22 (34.9 %). With respect to educational level of the patients, they seemed to be less aware of the disease. Their perception regarding the disease is that they had a “water filled” balloon or tumor.

Conclusion: Prior to discharge of an ovarian cyst patient from the hospital, she should be counseled on the disease and successful treatment outcomes. Counseling of the patients may result in compliance with therapy, good quality of life and lower economic burden.

Keywords: Ovarian cyst, Menstrual cycle, Awareness, Perception, Treatment outcomes