Abstract

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition that affects gastrointestinal tract with a significant impact on the patients’ quality of life. This study aimed to assess the level of awareness and knowledge about IBD among the community in Taif, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire. The study included all public older than 18 years old and living in Taif, Saudi Arabia. A pre-designed questionnaire was designed to collect data about the participants’ knowledge about causes and complications of IBD, treatment, primary and secondary prevention of IBD.
Results: In this study, 586 responses were collected in which it was found that 90.3% participants indicated having no history of colon conditions, while 4.8% had family history of IBD, 3.1% of ulcerative colitis and 1.9% were Crohn patients. Moreover, it was found that 5.5% participants did not have any knowledge about IBD, 42.7% had low level of knowledge and 9% had high le vel of knowledge.
Conclusion: A significant low awareness toward IBD was found, especially toward management and complications of IBD among general public. The high-risk population were older participants, male gender, participants with low education, and participants without pervious history of IBD.

Key words: inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, Saudi Arabia