Assessing Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preventive Practices Related to Kala-azar: A Study of Rural Madhepura, Bihar, India

Abstract

To assess the knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices related to kala-azar in Madhepura district of Bihar, a community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in November 2014. A total of 353 households were interviewed from 24 villages of four blocks of Madhepura district. Data were collected using structured interview schedule. For knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice indexes, scores were assigned to individual questions based on the accuracy of responses. Univariate and binary logistic regressions were applied for the analysis. Eighty-four percent households had heard of kala-azar disease, but only 15.9% could recognize that sand flies were responsible for transmitting the disease. Overall, only 43.9% had fair knowledge on kala-azar disease (e.g., mode of transmission, signs and symptoms, and the outcome if left untreated) and the vector (breeding place, season, and biting time). Almost 48.6% had a favorable attitude toward treatability and management of kala-azar and 37.7% practiced proper mechanism to prevent and control kala-azar. Occupation emerged as a significant predictor for all three indexes. Other important predictors for the attitude index were literacy, household type, households ever had a kala-azar case, and knowledge index. Despite 61.8% of the households ever reported to have a member diagnosed with kala-azar, the overall knowledge of the disease and vector, attitude, and practices about prevention and control of kala-azar was found to be lagging. Therefore, our investigation suggests that further strengthening of comprehensive knowledge about kala-azar and preventive practices is needed.

The Impact of Leishmaniasis on Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being: A Systematic Review

“…All were independent studies, except two (42,43) where one was the baseline study, and the other the follow-up study, and published between 2004 and 2018. Three studied VL (42,43,46); 10 studied CL (41,44,45,48,49,51–55) and one PKDL (50) (Table 1). All studies were performed in LMICs (Table 1).…”

“…Three studies were on VL (42,43,46); 10 studied CL (41,44,45,48,49,51–55); and Pal et al, 2017 studied PKDL (50). Of the VL studies, two were about HIV patients co-infected with VL (42,43), which was part of the inclusion criteria for the population.…”

“…Nine studies were cross-sectional (42,44–46,48,49,51,53,55), three were case-control (Pal et al, 2017; Turan et al, 2015; Yanik et al, 2004), one was a prospective cohort study (43) and one a systematic review (41). The characteristics of the 14 included studied that met the eligibility criteria were assessed for quantitative synthesis.…”

“…Almost 74% thought that VL in the family has financial consequences, causes impoverishment. (39.5%) leading to the need for loans (17.6%), forced to sell property (0.7%) and other (15.5%) (46).…”

“…In contrast, recruitment methods for subjects seemed to be justified for all studies. Out of the nine cross-sectional studies, only five (42,45,46,49,53) controlled for at least one confounder. Thus, the remaining four could be severely biased due to confounders such as the age or gender of the participants.…”