An assessment of knowledge, attitude and perceived risk of Ebola virus disease (EVD) among rural dwellers in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: The last Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak that affected countries in the West African sub-region was introduced into Nigeria on 20th July 2014. Nigeria successfully contained the epidemic in its early stages while other countries in the region have most recently attained control; however, the resurgence is still imminent. The epidemic was compounded by a high level of ignorance and misconceptions. The study, conducted in a rural community in Northern Nigeria, sought to assess their EVD knowledge, attitude and risk perception. Subjects and Methods: The study, which is cross sectional descriptive, was conducted in Iyatawa village, a rural community in Giwa LGA, Kaduna State. Data were collected through administration of questionnaires to all the 358 household heads in the village. Scores were computed for knowledge and risk perception, and bivariate analysis was performed to find out associations among knowledge, risk perception and key socio-demographic variables with level of significance set at P Results: The median age of the respondents was 35.3 years. Majority of the respondents were Hausa/Fulani (99.7%), Moslem (96.1%), married (72.1%), had no formal education (91.9%) and were subsistence farmers (45.0%). Only 43.0% had good knowledge of EVD, and 15.9% positive attitude. Majority of the respondents (83.3%) perceived their EVD risk as low. Socio-demographic characteristics were neither significantly associated with knowledge nor risk perception. Conclusions: Comprehensive knowledge of EVD among members of Iyatawa community is fairly good; however, risk perception was low and attitude negative, thus suggesting the need to mount sensitisation and behaviour change communication interventions.