Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Leptospirosis among Lakeshore Communities of Calamba and Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a serious and potentially fatal zoonotic disease, but often neglected owing to lack of awareness. This study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning leptospirosis among agricultural (n = 152) and non-agricultural (n = 115) workers in the lakeshore communities of Calamba and Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. The findings showed no significant differences for the knowledge and attitude scores between agricultural and non-agricultural workers. However, agricultural workers had significantly lower prevention practice scores than non-agricultural workers. The ordinary least squares regression model identified gender, use of broadcast media as a source of health information, and knowledge and attitudes about leptospirosis as significant predictors of prevention practices common to both workers. Higher educational attainment was significantly associated with prevention practices among agricultural workers, while higher age and income level were significantly associated with prevention practices among non-agricultural workers. Public health interventions to improve leptospirosis knowledge and prevention practices should include health education and promotion programs, along with the strengthening of occupational health and safety programs in the agricultural sector.

Small Millet Farming Drifting towards Progression: An Attitudinal Study

“…From the results of attitude measurement on changing trends towards millet farming for future it could be observed that 57.50 percent of the respondents had positive attitude and completely agreed that millets are crops for future farming due to its present market potential and demand in urban markets. These findings were supported by the previous studies conducted by D'Silva, et al [13] Hu Y, et al [14] Arbiol, et al [15] which confirmed that, there was a positive relationship between attitude and the outcome variable adoption. This is followed by 31.67 per cent of the respondents who had neither positive nor negative attitude and stayed neutral.…”

Leptospirosis Occurrence in Agricultural Communities in Setiu, Terengganu

“…The findings only 45.3% of the respondents answered that the infected person may have certain sign and symptoms. This results also similar among respondents from Philippines and Trinidad with 44% and 47% respectively [5], [18] but lower compared to Brazil with 68% [4]. This fact indicates that majority of people are not aware of the disease as most of infected persons are asymptomatic.…”

“…The level of knowledge on mode of transmission and causes contributing to leptospirosis noted in this current study is better than the other factors. This finding is quite lower compared to those obtained by [4], [5], [19], [18]. This may imply that the respondents know the disease is caused by bacteria and it is related to rodents and its urine and how the microbes enter into the body.…”

“…With regards to disease prevention, our study findings showed 60% from total respondents answered correctly. This is also lower compared to [4], [5], [19] respectively. Indeed, without knowing how to prevent from being infected by leptospirosis, we cannot expect that respondents to be aware of the disease and it is almost impossible for them to be motivated in adopting good preventive measures in their working practices.…”

“…A set of validated translated questionnaire was developed based on previous KAP studies on leptospirosis by [4], [5]. The first section of the questionnaire focused on demographic questions.…”