Introduction: The study assessed the knowledge of risk factors for surgical complications; assessed the state of psychosocial well-being of postoperative patients after surgical intervention; identified factors for psychosocial well-being and determined the association between demographic variables and knowledge of risk factors for surgical complications among post-operative patients.
Methods: The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. Random sampling technique was used to select two hospitals and a census was adopted to select 80 respondents. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data that were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0. Descriptive statistics were used to present data and inferential statistics were used to test association between variables at p value ≤ 0.05.
Results: The mean age of respondents was 30.28±2.68 years and 28.7%, 37.5% and 33.8% of respondents have good, moderate and poor knowledge of risk factors of complications of surgical interventions, respectively. Also, 45% had poor psychosocial wellbeing, 42.5% had good psychosocial wellbeing, and 12.5% had fair psychosocial wellbeing level. Factors influencing the psychosocial well-being of post-operative patients were the type of surgery, duration of surgery, and presence of other ailments. Most respondents (82.5%) believed that adherence to drug regimens enhances speedy recovery, while 25.0% said smoking and drinking alcohol improves wound healing. There was a significant relationship between knowledge of risk factors for complications of surgical intervention and the psychosocial well-being of post-operative patients (p =0.01).
Conclusion: A considerable percentage of surgical patients had poor knowledge of risk factors for complications and poor psychosocial well-being. Hence, there is a need to improve on the pre-operative education of patients to increase their knowledge on the risk factors for complications of surgical interventions.
