Catch them young: Knowledge gaps about drug resistant tuberculosis among Homoeopathy college interns: Apre and post-test study

Abstract

Background: India is the highest Tuberculosis (TB) burden country in the world. It also has the second highest burden of Multidrug-resistant TB globally. Many precious lives are lost due to Drug-resistant TB (DR TB) every day. To achieve the goal of TB elimination in India, robust primary health care is mandatory. Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) practitioners provide a quarter of primary health care in India. Since interns working at Homoeopathic Medical college will be the future primary care providers, their awareness about DR TB will help reach the target of End TB by 2025. Objective:The study objective was to assess the knowledge gained by Homoeopathy college interns in the diagnosis and treatment of DR TB following a single-day training session. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 33 interns of Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Homoeopathic Medical College, Pune. Aquestionnaire was given in the form of a pre-test before the training session. The training comprised the epidemiology of DR TB, its diagnosis,treatment, counseling, and need for referral. After completion of training, a post-test was given, and scores were calculated. A two-tailed paired sample t-test was used to assess gain in knowledge. The proportion of participants with correct responses for every question was determined and compared before and after training using the McNemar test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The mean pre-test score was 2.30 ± 1.24, while the mean post-test score was 4.24 ± 2.00 (p<0.001). There was less knowledge about the regime for DR TB, pre-treatment evaluation, gene Xpert method, and empirical Anti-tuberculosis Treatment. Conclusion: This study highlights that there are significant gaps in knowledge about DR TB among Homoeopathy college interns. It also showed that a short training session significantly improved their knowledge.