Health Knowledge of Outpatient Visitors at Mirjan Teaching Hospital in Al-Hilla city Kadhem Qais Ismaeel1, Jabbar Ali Adnan2, Kadhom N Ghosson3 1Family Medicine Specialist, Al Muthanna University, College of Medicine, Iraq 2Internal Medicine, Al Muthanna University, College of Medicine, Iraq 3Family Medicine Specialist, Babylon Health Directorate, Babylon, Mirjan Teaching Hospital, Iraq Online published on 4 June, 2019. Abstract Background Little health knowledge is related to absence of medical data, inadequate use of protective methods, low drug loyalty rates, elevated health care fees and elevated hazard of hospitalization. This study was aimed to confirm the broad health knowledge of outpatient visitors at Mirjan Teaching Hospital in AL-Hilla city. Method A cross-sectional descriptive study using convenience sample that consisted of 300 patients who were visiting the outpatient clinic in Mirjan Teaching Hospital. Simple demographic data were collected. SPSS (version 22) was used for statistical analysis, Chi-squared test was used for nonparametric variables. Results Data from current study showed that 64% of participants had poor knowledge and 36% had good knowledge. In addition, results revealed that 46 (15%) of participants were 15–24 years, 118 (40%) were 25–44 years and 36 (45%) were ≥45 years. Also, 138 (46%) of participants were males and 54% (162) were females. Moreover, 46% (140) of participants were living in urban areas; whereas 54% (160) were from rural regions. Illiterate patients represented 14%, those with primary education 37%, those had high school 30%, while those had higher education (university or institute) 19% of the total number of participants. Conclusions Poor health knowledge was more dependent on level of education of patients, but did not depend on age, gender or area of residence. Top Keywords Health knowledge, gender, age, area of residence, level of education. Top |