Abstract
Effort to control dengue transmission requires community participation to ensure its sustainability. We carried out a knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) survey of dengue prevention to inform the design of a vector control intervention. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in June–August 2014 among 521 households in two villages of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Demographic characteristics and KAP questions were asked using a self-managed questionnaire. Knowledge, attitudes and practice scores were summarized for the population according to sex, age, occupation and education. The average knowledge score was rather poor—3.7 out of 8—although both attitude and practice scores were good: 25.5 out of 32 and 9.2 out of 11 respectively. The best knowledge within the different groups were found among women, the age group 30–44 years, people with a university degree and government employees. Best practice scores were found among retired people and housewives. There were several significant gaps in knowledge with respect to basic dengue symptoms, preventive practices and biting and breeding habits of the Aedes mosquito. In contrast, people’s practices were considered good, although many respondents failed to recognize outdoor containers as mosquito breeding sites. Accordingly, we developed a vector control card to support people’s container cleaning practices. The card was assessed for eight consecutive weeks in 2015, with pre-post larvae positive houses and containers as primary outcome measures. The use of control cards reached a low engagement of the community. Despite ongoing campaigns aiming to engage the community in dengue prevention, knowledge levels were meagre and adherence to taught routines poor in many societal groups. To increase motivation levels, bottom-up strategies are needed to involve all community members in dengue control, not only those that already comply with best practices.
Highlights
Dengue fever, one of the most significant mosquito-borne diseases worldwide, is becoming an increasing threat to humanity owing to climate change and globalization [1,2,3,4]
As dengue cases remain high in Yogyakarta, there are reasons to believe that the vector control initiatives can be further improved, and people’s response to ongoing campaigns has according to our knowledge not been evaluated previously
Our study attempts to provide an understanding of the current knowledge, attitude and practices with regards to dengue fever and dengue prevention as a foundation for improved community participation in dengue control in Yogyakarta City
Summary
One of the most significant mosquito-borne diseases worldwide, is becoming an increasing threat to humanity owing to climate change and globalization [1,2,3,4]. In 2014, the average Incidence Rate (IR) in Yogyakarta City was 101.10 per 100,000 population [8], which was twice the national average of 50.75 [9]. In 2016, the number of reported cases reached 1706 [10], corresponding to an IR of 413.74 per 100,000 population, which was more than five times the national average of 77.96 per 100,000 population [11]. In 2019, 35 cases of dengue fever have been reported in Yogyakarta according to the District Health Office in January, a fivefold increase compared to the same period in 2018 [12].
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