Knowledge, Attitude and Use of Clinical Preventive Services among Patients Attending the General Out-patient Clinic of a Tertiary Hospital in South-south Nigeria

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases are now very prevalent in Nigeria, but the uptake of clinical preventive services (CPS) that have been shown to be very effective in their control has been very poor. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude and use of the services among patients attending a general out-patient clinic, in a tertiary hospital in Port Harcourt, south-south Nigeria. A cross-sectional study design was used, and the data for the study was collected using a semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. A total of 422 questionnaires were administered and analyzed. The respondents had an average age of 36.04 ±1.99 years; majority had at least secondary school education (90.05%), were Christians of Pentecostal denomination (50.95%) and self employed (52.13%). Most (76.30%) of the respondents were aware of at least one form of CPS. All believed that CPS are effective in the prevention of non-communicable diseases, but only 18.25% believed that CPS alone would be enough to prevent the diseases. The religious denomination of the respondents significantly affected their conviction in the effectiveness of CPS (p-value = 0.000). The respondents that did not access the services gave reasons that include believe that the services are not very effective in preventing the diseases (39.31%) and the fear of positive test result (26.59%). The awareness of the respondents of CPS is high, but the uptake of the services is poor, due to factors that include religious denomination of the respondents. Deliberate effort is therefore required to increase the uptake of the services.