Knowledge and Self-Care Practices among Psoriatic Patients in Benha City

Background: Psoriasis is a common, chronic, non-communicable skin disease, with no clear cause or cure. The negative impact of this condition on people’s lives can be immense. Psoriasis affects people of all ages, and in all countries. The reported prevalence of psoriasis in countries ranges between 0.09% and 11.43%, making psoriasis a serious global problem with at least 100 million individuals affected worldwide. Psoriasis has an unpredictable course of symptoms, a number of external triggers and significant comorbidities, including arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and depression. The study aimed to assess knowledge and self-care practices among psoriatic patients. Research design: A descriptive research design was utilized to conduct this study. Setting: The study was conducted at Dermatology Hospital out-patient clinics and Dermatology Out-Patient Clinics of Benha University Hospital in Benha City. Sample: A convenient sample was selected from the above mentioned setting; it included 30 psoriatic patients. Tools: Two main tools. Tool I: A structured interviewing questionnairePart I: A) Socio-demographic characteristic of the psoriatic patients, B) Past medical history of the psoriatic patient, c) Current medical history. Part II: Psoriasis Knowledge Questionnaire (PKQ). Tool II: The patients' self-care practices toward psoriasis. Results: 40% of studied patients aged more than 50 years old, 73,3% of studied patients were males, 56.7% of psoriatic patients had poor total knowledge, While 23.3%of them had a good total knowledge score and 73.3% of studied patients had total unsatisfactory self-care practices score toward psoriasis. Conclusion: there was a positive correlation between the studied patients' total knowledge score and their total self-care practices score regarding psoriasis. Recommendation: Health educational program about psoriasis should be developed and implemented at outpatient clinics to improve patients' knowledge and self-care practices regarding psoriasis.