Patients' knowledge and perception of anesthesia and the anesthetists: Cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Anesthesiology was misconceived as a behind the screen specialty. Despite significant advancements in its scope, anesthesia remains have a poor public image, clients are not even aware of an anesthetist as a medically qualified health professional, particularly in underdeveloped countries. There has been very little study done on the public's awareness of anesthesia in Ethiopia. This study was conducted to assess the level of patients' knowledge and perception of anesthesia and the anesthetists. METHODS: Institution-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from January to May 2021, at the University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, Ethiopia. Consenting participants were asked to answer a standard questionnaire in a personal interview to assess their knowledge about anesthesia and the anesthetist. Descriptive statistic was used to explain the study participants with study variables and to describe their perception about anesthesia and anesthetists. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the association between the level of knowledge and independent variables. The strength of the association between the independent variables and the level of knowledge was presented by an adjusted odds ratio and 95% Confidence Interval. RESULTS: A total of 307 study participants were included in this study with a response rate of 100%. Of these 113 (36.8) were males and 194 (63.2) were females. Two hundred twenty (71.7%) study participants answered less than half of the questions correctly and had a poor level of knowledge the rest 87 (28.3%) had a good level of knowledge and the mean knowledge score was1.72 ± 0.45. Previous anesthesia exposure (p value = 0.001) and occupation (p value = 0.022) of participants had statistically significant association with the level of knowledge. CONCLUSION: and recommendation: We have found that patients had very limited (poor) knowledge and perception regarding anesthesia and the role of anesthetists. Anesthetists should do a complete pre-anesthetic assessment which helps them to achieve good patient recognition.