Abstract:

Aim: The study was conducted to determine the health perception level of surgical patients and to examine the factors thought to be related to health perceptions. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 600 patients who were treated in a university hospital and who agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected with “Health Perception Scale” and "Patient Information Form" which was based on relevant literature and contain the variables that considered to affect the health perception.Scale point averages, Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test were used in data analyses. The significance level was taken as p <0.05. Results: The age of study group was between 20-75, with mean of 46.50 ± 15.97 years. Health perception scores were between 15-69, with mean of 38.43 ± 7.70 points. There was found significant difference between age, education level, marital status, number of children, number of hospitalizations and health perception scores (p<0.05 for each one). Conclusion: Health perceptions of surgical patients were determined at moderate level. While higher education status, being married, hospitalization for the first time affects health perception positively; increasing age, having chronic illness and having high number of children are determined as factors that negatively affect health perception.

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