Assessing changes in knowledge, attitude and practices on dengue diagnosis and management among primary care physicians after the largest dengue epidemic in Singapore

ObjectiveDengue and chikungunya virus diseases are becoming an increasingly important global health threats and are continuously expanding their geographical range. The study aims to investigate knowledge and diagnostic practice of dengue and chikungunya fever among healthcare workers in Moshi Municipality.ResultsMost of healthcare workers heard of chikungunya and dengue 146 (71.2%) and 203 (99%) respectively. Ninety-five (46.3%) and 152 (74.1%) had good knowledge regard chikungunya and dengue respectively. One hundred and twenty-two of HCWs 122 (59.5%) reported that there is no vaccination for dengue virus. Most HCWs 199 (97.0%) reported that the absence of diagnostic tool for dengue virus lead to difficult in managing the infection. The finding of this study showed that there is insufficient knowledge regarding chikungunya while knowledge regarding dengue is relatively fair. This calls for training regarding these infections.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4074-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…The outbreak created awareness to most of people in Tanzania. The same scenario has been reported in Singapore [26].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Healthcare workers knowledge and diagnostic practices: a need for dengue and chikungunya training in Moshi Municipality, Kilimanjaro Tanzania

et al. 2019

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“…It is also believed that whenever a dengue outbreak happens in an area, people around the area will be more cautious and improve their dengue vector control practice. This was proven by a study done in Singapore where while knowledge remained the same, attitude and practices on dengue improved significantly among primary care physicians after a large epidemic happened [12]. However, in this study, even though dengue-infected more people in hotspot than non-hotspot areas, the knowledge and attitude of people living in the dengue outbreak areas did not seem to improve.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Comparison of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Communities Living in Hotspot and Non-Hotspot Areas of Dengue in Selangor, Malaysia

et al. 2019

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Background: Dengue has affected more than one-third of the world population and Malaysia has recorded an increase in the number of dengue cases since 2012. Selangor state recorded the highest number of dengue cases in Malaysia. Most of the dengue infections occur among people living in hotspot areas of dengue. This study aims to compare Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among communities living in hotspot and non-hotspot dengue areas. Method: Communities living in 20 hotspot and 20 non-hotspot areas in Selangor were chosen in this study where 406 participants were randomly selected to answer questionnaires distributed at their housing areas. Total marks of each categories were compared using t-test. Result: Results show that there were significant mean differences in marks in Knowledge (p value: 0.003; 15.41 vs. 14.55) and Attitude (p value: < 0.001; 11.41 vs. 10.33), but not Practice (p value 0.101; 10.83 vs. 10.47) categories between communities of non-hotspot and hotspot areas. After considering two confounding variables which are education level and household income, different mean marks are found to be significant in Knowledge when education level acts as a covariate and Attitude when both act as covariates. Conclusion: Overall results show that people living in non-hotspot areas had better knowledge and attitude than people living in hotspot areas, but no difference was found in practice. This suggests that public health education should be done more frequently with people with a low education background and low household income, especially in hotspot areas to fight dengue outbreak and make dengue cases decrease effectively.

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“…A series of annual educational seminars targeted at primary care practitioners has been held since 2011 in conjunction with the ASEAN Dengue Day. These initiatives facilitate early diagnosis and close monitoring of dengue in the primary healthcare setting [23,26]. Surveys of primary care practices over two time periods in 2011 and 2014 demonstrated increased confidence and better management of dengue among primary care practitioners, with fewer referrals to hospital [26,27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 15-year review of dengue hospitalizations in Singapore: Reducing admissions without adverse consequences, 2003 to 2017

Ang

Thein

et al. 2019

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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Objectives Since the 1990s, Singapore has experienced periodic dengue epidemics of increasing frequency and magnitude. In the aftermath of the 2004–2005 dengue epidemic, hospitals refined their admission criteria for dengue cases to right-site dengue case management and reduce the burden of healthcare utilization and negative outcomes. In this study, we describe the national trends of hospital admissions for dengue and disease severity in terms of length of stay (LOS), admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and death in hospital, and case fatality rate (CFR) in Singapore. Methods We conducted a retrospective study of notified cases and laboratory confirmed dengue patients admitted to all public and private hospitals between 2003 and 2017. Case notifications for dengue and hospitalization records were extracted from national databases. Results The proportion of dengue cases hospitalized was lower in recent years; 28.9% in the 2013–2014 epidemic, compared to 93.2% in the 2004–2005 epidemic, and 58.1% in the 2007 epidemic. Median LOS remained stable over the years; overall LOS was 3 to 4 days and ICU stay was 2 to 3 days. Less than 2% of hospitalized patients were admitted to the ICU. Overall CFR was low and remained below 0.5%. The proportions of dengue cases hospitalized and patients admitted to the ICU were highest in the elderly aged 65 years and older. Conclusions While the proportion of dengue cases hospitalized saw a drastic decline due to more selective admission criteria, there was no concomitant increase in adverse outcomes, suggesting that admission criteria were appropriate to focus on severe dengue cases. Further studies are needed to optimize dengue management in older adults who are more likely to be hospitalized with greater disease severity, given the higher proportions of hospitalizations and severe disease among older adults.

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Assessing changes in knowledge, attitude and practices on dengue diagnosis and management among primary care physicians after the largest dengue epidemic in Singapore

Cited by 13 publications

References 22 publications

Healthcare workers knowledge and diagnostic practices: a need for dengue and chikungunya training in Moshi Municipality, Kilimanjaro Tanzania

Healthcare workers knowledge and diagnostic practices: a need for dengue and chikungunya training in Moshi Municipality, Kilimanjaro Tanzania

Comparison of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Communities Living in Hotspot and Non-Hotspot Areas of Dengue in Selangor, Malaysia

A 15-year review of dengue hospitalizations in Singapore: Reducing admissions without adverse consequences, 2003 to 2017

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