Abstract
BackgroundKnowledge and awareness about childhood autism is low among health workers and the general community in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries. Poor knowledge and awareness about childhood autism, especially among health workers can compromise early recognition and interventions which had been known to improve prognosis in children with autism. In formulating policy and designing interventions for these children, there is need to develop a reliable tool that can be used in assessing baseline knowledge about childhood autism among health workers and the impact that future continued education and awareness campaign may have on such baseline knowledge. Knowledge about childhood autism among health workers (KCAHW) questionnaire was designed for this purpose.MethodsThe KCAHW questionnaire is a nineteen (19) item self-administered questionnaire that is divided into four domains. KCAHW questionnaires were distributed to fifty (50) psychiatric nurses involved in community mental health services in South-Eastern Nigeria to complete. After two weeks period, the KCAHW questionnaires were re-administered to the same fifty (50) psychiatric nurses to assess their knowledge about childhood autism and to assess the test-retest reliability and internal consistency of this questionnaire.ResultsKCAHW questionnaire showed good test-retest reliability when the mean domain and total scores at first and second time administration were compared. The four mean domain scores and the mean total scores at first and second time administration were significantly correlated. The questionnaire also had a good overall internal consistency when the mean scores of the four domains were correlated with mean total scores (Cronbach's alpha = 0.97).ConclusionThe KCAHW questionnaire is a reliable tool for assessing knowledge of health workers about childhood autism. It would be a useful tool in improving early recognition of features of autism among affected children in Sub-Saharan African and other developing countries of the world where knowledge and awareness about childhood autism is low.
Highlights
Knowledge and awareness about childhood autism is low among health workers and the general community in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries
While knowledge and research on childhood autism and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are on the increase in parts of the world, knowledge and research about this condition are limited in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries [10]
A total of fifty (50) psychiatric nurses employed by FNHE, Nigeria and who are involved in the community mental health services of the hospital participated in the study
Summary
Knowledge and awareness about childhood autism is low among health workers and the general community in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries. There had been observation that the prevalence of childhood autism and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were on the increase worldwide [2,3,4,5,6,7,8] This prevalence increase had been thought to be attributable to increased knowledge and awareness among health workers and possible adoption of broader criteria in making the diagnosis [9]. While knowledge and research on childhood autism and ASD are on the increase in parts of the world, knowledge and research about this condition are limited in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries [10]. The evidence of low level of awareness and rare presentation to clinicians in this part of the world can be seen in the reported cases from Nigeria where the patients were coming in contact with orthodox care for the first time as adolescents [14,15]
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