Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and perception of Saudi population on appendicitis and appendectomy and to determine the level of awareness about appendicitis among Saudi Arabia; The population used in this study was all the citizens of Saudi Arabia; and the study sample included (3368) participant randomly chosen from the population; In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used the analytical descriptive method for this study. The main tool adopted for the present study is a questionnaire that consist of 27 items designed to measure the level of awareness in the Saudi population in regard to appendicitis; many conclusions were extrapolated from the results of the study, the most important of which is that (47.2%) of the sample did not know the cause of appendicitis, also (60.3%) of the respondents believe that appendicitis can be prevented, and (56.9%) of the sample did not know what are the risks of appendectomy, which shows an alarming level of misinformation and unawareness of such an important life threatening issue which reflected in the result of the final item in the questionnaire which showed that (95.9%) of respondents believe that there is no advocacy of awareness about appendicitis by the media in Saudi Arabia; The study made several recommendations as well, the most important of which is the urgency to develop a plan to raise the awareness of the Saudi society using various media outlets about the causes of appendicitis and how to deal with it, the researcher also suggested that further studies are needed to measure the readiness of the various Saudi media outlets to educate the community about the causes of appendicitis and how to deal with it.