Knowledge and prevention practice against dengue vectors among dengue patients and general people in Chattogram, Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Due to the absence of an effective vaccine for dengue, community-led vector control strategy could be a sustainable approach for dengue prevention. Therefore, this study aimed to assess people’s knowledge of dengue vectors and the practice of preventive measures to avoid vector mosquitoes by means of a structured questionnaire. Methods: A telephone-based survey was conducted between July 2019 to December 2019 from confirmed dengue patients and general people without dengue fever living in Chattogram, Bangladesh. Patients’ contact information was collected from two tertiary care hospitals. The level of knowledge and preventive practice were determined through the scoring of each participant against their responses. The association of individuals’ knowledge and practice scores with demographic variables was measured through chi-square and binary logistic analyses. Results: Overall, 61.9% of participants (72% case and 51.7% non-case) had good knowledge, whereas only 10.6% of them (12.7% case and 8.7% non-case) strongly practiced the mosquito prevention methods. However, significant variation in the level of knowledge was found between the two groups. Urban residents had 2.20 times higher knowledge compared to semi urban. Students and government officials had 3.39 times and 3.17 times better knowledge than general workers respectively. Permanent residents had 2.01 times better knowledge in comparison to the people living in temporary housing. In terms of mosquito preventive measures, semi-urban people showed 3.19 times (CI=0.97-10.52) stronger practice compared to rural people. Conclusions: This study suggests that dengue control strategies should focus on the effective practice of mosquito prevention by engaging community people.