Abstract
BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is one of the primary public health problems in developing countries. HIV/AIDS, poverty, undernutrition, over-crowded living conditions and lack of knowledge about the disease have been known to increase the risk of spreading the bacteria and the risk of developing the disease. The objective of this study was to assess the level of TB knowledge, attitudes and practices of rural communities of Itang Special District of the Gambella Regional State of Ethiopia.MethodsBetween November 2011 and January 2012, a community-based cross sectional study was carried out in a randomly selected rural kebeles (i.e. the smallest administrative units) of Itang communities. The study participants were interviewed using pre-tested questionnaire. The overall knowledge, attitudes and practices of the study participants were assessed using the mean score of each outcome as a cut-off value. Having a score above the mean on each of the three target outcomes was equated with having a good level of knowledge, or having favorable attitude and good practices towards TB.ResultsOut of 422 study participants (58.5% males and 41.5% females) only 3.3% mentioned bacteria/germ as a cause of pulmonary TB (PTB) and 9.9% mentioned cough for at least two weeks as the sign of TB. Taking the mean knowledge score as the cut-off value, 57.6% (95% CI: 52.7% to 62.3%) of the study participants had good level of knowledge about TB, 40.8% (95% CI: 36.0% to 45.6%) had favorable attitude towards TB and 45.9% (95% CI: 41.1% to 50.9%) had good practices. Female participants were less likely to have good level of knowledge [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.33, 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.51, p < 0.001], less likely to have favorable attitude (AOR = 0.23, 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.37) and less likely to have good practices (AOR = 0.37, 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.57, p < 0.001) compared to male participants.ConclusionMajority of the study participants had no correct information about the causative agent of TB and the main symptom of PTB. Moreover, low level of overall knowledge, attitudes and practices about TB was associated with female participants. Hence, TB control strategy in the present study area should include community awareness raising component.
Highlights
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the primary public health problems in developing countries
Socio-demographic characteristics of the study participants A total of 422 study participants (58.5% males and 41.5% females; age ranged from 19-81 years) were interviewed and the response rate was 100%
Alcohol consumption, smoking and shortage of food were frequently mentioned as the cause of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) by the present study participants which is similar to the findings of studies in Tigray, Afar and North Ethiopia [15,16,18], but differ from the findings of previous study on TB suspects in a rural community of southwest Ethiopia, in which sizeable number of the study participants
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the primary public health problems in developing countries. In a community with low levels of awareness about the cause, mode of transmission and preventive methods, the spreading of TB could be high [4,5]. The vast majority of the cases (95%) and deaths (98%) occur in resource limited countries [3]. This situation has been aggravating with growing problem of resistances to first line anti-TB drugs resulting in half million of new cases of multi drug resistances (MDR TB) [6,7]. TB situation is most likely to continue to deteriorate due to multiple factors such as HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, low level of awareness and adverse effect of poor quality TB program [3]
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