Assessment of knowledge and awareness regarding Peptic Ulcer Disease (PUD) among the university students of Bangladesh

Background: Peptic Ulcer Disease (PUD) is characterized by discontinuation in the inner lining of the Gastrointestinal (GI) tract due to gastric acid secretion or pepsin. Peptic ulcers are open sores that develop on the inside lining of the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine. The study aims to determine the knowledge and awareness about peptic ulcer disease among Bangladeshi university students. The survey was carried out among 442 students of different departments of different private universities of Bangladesh, namely Stamford University Bangladesh, Independent University Bangladesh, and Military Institute of Science and Technology. Data were collected using structured questionnaires in the Google form focusing on the knowledge and awareness regarding PUD containing 8 questions related to the students’ demographics, 10 questions related to the knowledge, and 7 questions related to the awareness of PUD. Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel version 10. Among the respondents, 59.7% were female, the majority of them were unmarried (90.50%), and the average age was found to be 21 years. It was observed that 90.05% of university participants knew about peptic ulcer, and 9.95% didn’t. It was found that 74.68% of university participants have heard about Peptic ulcer from books and 9.95% from media such as TV, Internet, etc. 59.28% of participants thought that NSAIDs can cause peptic ulcer. On the contrary, 55.66% thought H. pylori can be a cause of PUD. 82.35% believed that stress and spicy foods cause PUD. Only 16.7% of participants experienced it. From the study, it was also noticed that 26.70% thought that anaemia, bloody vomit, bloody stool, and headache all are true about PUD. There was a substantial correlation between the respondents' attitudes and knowledge scores (p