First Aid Management and Myths of Epistaxis among General Adult Saudi population of Al Majmaah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

To evaluate the knowledge, awareness, and attitude (myths) of the general population about the first aid management of epistaxis. This cross-sectional study was conducted via an online questionnaire from March to August 2022. We generated google forms for data collection. The link to this google form was randomly shared on WhatsApp and Facebook platforms. A previously used questionnaire was used and tested in the pilot study over a sample of 20 participants. The questionnaire contained socio-demographic information including sex, age, occupation, and residence. Furthermore, the level of awareness was measured on behalf of epistaxis causes and actions which were further subdivided into many categories. Myths were also observed through a questionnaire For this cross-sectional study 407 participants aged 15 to 55 years were recruited. A total of 325 participants encountered epistaxis once in their lifetime. The 30% participants of in our study reported spontaneous epistaxis while 4.4% and 4.9% encountered it due to nasal trauma and fingernail trauma. In 7.6% of participants, epistaxis occurred due to bleeding disorders while 23% reported hypertension as the major reason. We observed that 94% population was familiar with the proper position that epistaxis patients required to control bleeding. Sitting with the head tilted forward as a coping mechanism was used in 48.9% of participants with 199 individuals practicing this while sitting with the head tilted backward was practiced by 117 (28.7%) participants. The general population had enough knowledge to manage epistaxis. The awareness levels of the population show a positive reflection of the healthcare system. However, we recommend that further studies should be conducted with a large sample size to evaluate the validity of our research.