Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Sexually Transmitted Infections among Lady Health Workers Working in Endemic Areas of Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

Globally, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) took the lives of nearly 680,000 people in 2020. And STI prevalence was found at almost 4.4% in the local population. As Lady Health Workers (LHWs) are a communication bridge between the patient and care provider therefore we aim to assess and identify the gaps in the knowledge, attitude, and practice of lady health workers regarding STIs
 Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study for 12 weeks (January-2020 till March-2020) was conducted among 18-60years who were trained in the last 3 months for the basic health unit in Jacobabad and were assessed for their knowledge, attitude, and practices. A total of 316 participants were selected via a simple random technique from 595 LHWs whereas analysis was performed in SPSS v.25
 Results: Total of 315 LHWs participated with mean age of 36.32±6.61 years and 99.4%, were Muslim. Their mean household monthly income was 26010.13± 2201.86 rupees and the majority, 266 (84.4%), were married and half of them, 169 (49.7%), were matriculated. Almost 94% knew about STIs but their knowledge was 6% at an excellent level. Very low number 7.9% found as excellent in the attitude assessment scale among participants whereas none of them was identified as excellent in practice.
 Discussion: The results findings showed that LHW should be equipped with the proper knowledge of STIs. LHW is in need of getting proper training on the practice as only 0.3% of the population involved in the study had a good practice of STIs.