Knowledge, attitude, and practice of the rural community about cutaneous leishmaniasis in Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected tropical disease that is caused by a Leishmania parasite and transmitted by the bite of infected female sandflies. Community awareness is an essential component of disease control and prevention. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the community’s knowledge, attitude, and practice toward CL in Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study design was employed to include 422 study subjects selected using a systematic sampling technique from two districts, Kindo Didaye and Sodo Zuria. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the household heads. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the relationship between the participants’ knowledge about CL and socio-demographic characteristics. Results Out of the 422 study participants, only 19% had good knowledge of CL in general. Most (67.1%) of the respondents knew CL by its local name ("bolbo" or "moora") though this knowledge varied highly over the study districts. The majority (86.3%) of respondents did not know how CL is acquired, though they considered CL a health problem. Most (62.8%) respondents believed that CL was an untreatable disease. Most (77%) participants responded that CL patients preferred to go to traditional healers for treatment. Herbal treatment was the most (50.2%) used to treat CL. Knowledge about CL was significantly associated with sex, age, and study districts. Conclusion The overall knowledge, attitude, and practice about CL and its prevention in the study area were low. This emphasizes the need to implement health education and awareness campaign to reduce the risk of CL infection. Policymakers and stakeholders should also give due attention to the prevention and treatment of CL in the study area.

Demographic characteristics and clinical features of patients presenting with different forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis, in Lay Gayint, Northern Ethiopia

“…Importantly, most did not know how it is transmitted and that it can be treated. This is in line with findings from other studies, where patients or individuals living in endemic areas know about the disease, but little about its transmission and treatments [25–28]. Better knowledge about how the disease is transmitted and the use of bed nets are likely to reduce CL transmission by sand flies.…”

Knowledge, attitude, practices and treatment-seeking behaviour concerning cutaneous leishmaniasis among rural hyperendemic communities in western Yemen

“…In comparison with KAP surveys conducted in CL-endemic areas in other countries, a previous study in rural communities of southern Ethiopia found that all heads of households studied did not know the mode of CL transmission and had never heard of sandflies, with only 19% (80/422) having a good level of CL-related knowledge 18 . Similarly, very poor levels of knowledge about the disease and its vector were reported in endemic areas of Kerala, India 19 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan 14 .…”

“…For descriptive data, frequency, percentage, and mean (standard deviation) or median (interquartile range) were used, where applicable, to describe the KAP components and independent variables. Scores were developed for the participants’ responses on questionnaire items related to knowledge, attitude and practices following the methods described previously 18 , 27 . In brief, from the KAP questionnaire, a composite score of each component was calculated for each participant where each correct response received a score of 1 and each incorrect or unsure response received a score of 0.…”

“…Knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) surveys are frequently employed tools for collecting essential data to guide the development of CL control and prevention strategies and interventions. Several KAP surveys on CL have been conducted in many countries across the MENA region such as Pakistan 14 , Iran 15 , Saudi Arabia 16 , and Morocco 17 , as well as other countries in East Africa 18 and Southeast Asia 19 .…”

Using the health belief model to understand the factors influencing the perceptions of people of Chinese ancestry about reducing salt consumption for hypertension prevention: A cross-sectional study

“…Salt-related health knowledge was assessed in part 2 by 6 categorical questions about the WHO-recommended maximum daily salt consumption level [ 4 ], long-term health issues associated with a high-salt diet, diagnostic criteria for hypertension, and causes, complications and preventive strategies for hypertension. One point was awarded to each correct answer [ 37 ]. This section had a maximum score of 6 points.…”