Abstract:

Background information: Dyspepsia is a common gastrointestinal disorder characterized by symptoms such as epigastric pain, bloating, early satiety and postprandial fullness often without an identifiable organic cause (1) Prevalence of dyspepsia in the community is about 20%(2) and it is a prevalent condition that can significantly impact patients quality of life and may lead to an increased utilization of health care resources (3) The Rome 4 criteria defined dyspepsia as any combination of 4 symptoms; postprandial fullness, early satiety, epigastric pain, and epigastric burning that are severe enough to interfere with the usual activities and occurs at least 3 months with an onset of at least 6 months in advance (1) After an accurate history taking and physical examination, in absence of alarm symptoms and sign (3) patient is diagnosed as affected by investigated dyspepsia and can be treated empirically on the basis of their clinical manifestation.

Method: the study involve patients with dyspepsia attending gastroenterology clinic at Bugando medical center and those who are planned for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS concerning the knowledge and attitude of patients towards the investigation.

Results: A total of 246 participants were involved in the study with a mean age of 40.96. 65.4% of participants showed good knowledge on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and 61.8% showed good attitude toward undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for their condition.

Conclusion, The findings in this study provides the first insight towards understanding the knowledge and attitude of patients with dyspepsia on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. There is still uncertainty regarding the factors affecting patient’s attitude and their compliance towards the procedure. This provides a great interest to both general practitioner, physicians and health policy makers who need to focus more on the issues concerning upper gastrointestinal endoscopy