ABSTRACT
Background: In recent years, mosquito borne diseases have emerged as a serious public health concern in India. Awareness among the general public is most important for the prevention of the dengue infection. Also nursing staff are the personnel who were contacting the general public constantly. Therefore this study was done to study the knowledge, attitude and practice of general public and nursing staff of hospitals regarding the dengue fever. Methods: The study was included of 189 general public people came to the OPD of the SMBT medical college, (at Ghoti, Nashik) along with their patients, while 78 were nursing staff of nearby hospitals. Specially prepared questionnaires consisting of 18 questions were used for the study. All the responses were collected and tabulated. The statistical analysis was done with the help of IBM SPSS statistics version 20 using student’s t test. Results: It was found that the most of the general public don’t have enough knowledge regarding the disease and its preventive practices. On comparison of the scores of the general public and nurses, the scores of the nurses were higher than that of the general public scores and the difference was found to be statistically significant. (Student’s t test, p<0.001). Conclusion: There is need to improve the knowledge of dengue infection among the general public through educating media, posters, pamplets or through seminars on medical education. Also the nursing staff should have enough knowledge as they are the prime personals contacting people and cab be an important source of educating them.
ABSTRACT
Background: Malaria remains one of the most serious global health problems and is not only a major cause of suffering and death, but also the cause of many socioeconomic problems. The present study was done to study knowledge, attitude and practice of general public towards malaria infection. Methods: A total of 576 individuals had taken participation in this particular study. The study was done at SMBT medical college, Ghoti, Nashik. Out of these, 258 were from rural area and 318 from urban area. A total of 20 questionnaires were formulated for this study. Responses of all the participants were collected, tabulated and analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics version 20 using student’s t test. Results: On comparison of the knowledge, attitude and practice scores of the urban and rural population, it was found that the scores of urban population was higher than that of the rural population and the difference was found to be statistically significant. (Student’s t test, p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that rural communities have less knowledge on malaria transmission, symptoms, and preventive measures. There is also a need for district health departments to improve availability of information about malaria through rural dispensaries and primary health centers.