Training initiatives that enhance knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease: a systematic review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lyme disease (LD) is the most commonly diagnosed tick-borne disease in North America and parts of Europe. Current mitigation strategies rely on personal protective behaviours, early diagnosis, and antibiotic treatment. This review updates on previous reviews on educational interventions for the prevention of LD and examines the impact of different interventions on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of healthcare professionals and the general public. We searched six databases for studies reporting participant assessment on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours related to LD. We included studies targeting the public as well as healthcare professionals. We used keywords related to Lyme disease, health knowledge, attitudes, practices, community, health education, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Fourteen studies were included in this review; 13 reported educational interventions focused on the prevention of LD in the public, and one on physicians’ diagnosis of LD. Regardless of the type of intervention, the public’s knowledge (11/13 studies) were generally observed to improve post-intervention, though changes to preventive behaviours and attitudes were inconsistent. A key finding in this study was that no studies reported outcomes from interventions targeted at educating healthcare professionals on their knowledge of LD, or how to treat LD. Our review demonstrated that public health interventions enhance assessed and/or perceived LD knowledge. However, more research is needed to investigate interventions directed at healthcare professionals across the spectrum of LD: prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of early, late and post-treatment illness. PROSPERO 2019.