RESUMO
Background: Diarrhoea is an important communicable disease which can be prevented by proper hygiene and other simple practical measures. We assessed the knowledge, attitude and practices among mothers regarding childhood diarrhoea in a secondary care hospital in Dimapur, Nagaland.Methods: Cross-sectional observational study conducted over a period of one year including 449 mothers in the age group <45 years with atleast one child under 5 years of age using an interviewer administered, pilot tested, semi-structured questionnaire under the following as categories demography, knowledge, attitude and practices.Results: 97.8% had good knowledge regarding causes and prevention of diarrhoea, 65% had good knowledge regarding the management of diarrhoea while 31% mothers had moderate knowledge. 98% mothers had good attitude but only 17.8% had good practice scores. Multivariate regression analysis showed education > class 10 and residence in urban area were significantly associated with good knowledge and education >class 10, age of mothers ≥29 years, employed mothers, family income Rs. ≥28000 were significantly associated with good practice.Conclusions: Good knowledge and attitude regarding diarrhoea prevention and management among our study population did not translate to good practice. These could also be due to the lower knowledge about management of diarrhoea. Widespread prevalence of wrong practices in the community like irrational use of antibiotics could also have resulted in low practice scores. The gaps between knowledge and attitude and practices among the mothers need to be addressed.
RESUMO
Background: The study was conducted to assess the awareness regarding Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about HIV/AIDS in the community of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Methods: The study was conducted in Rawalpindi and Islamabad with age of 18 years and more. The data was randomly selected from 120 people having qualification of undermatric/matric/graduation/masters and above through questionnaire. The duration of the study was one year from April 2012 to March 2013. Results: Study showed that media is major source of awareness through Television (81.7%) and News Paper (67.5%).It was seen that 48.3% knew the difference between HIV and AIDS. 53.3% knew the signs and symptoms of HIV/AIDS but more than 46% did not know clinical features. Most of the community (79.2%) knew about the mode of transmission but small percentage (20.8%) did not have knowledge about transmission of disease. 85.8% knew about mode of prevention of HIV/AIDS. More than 80% of the participants suggested for compulsory screening of HIV/AIDS whereas a small percentage (up to 20%) did not suggest. Attitude of community was mix reply with positive attitude (58.3%) and negative attitude (41.7%).About 40% were in favor of health insurance whereas around 60% feel no need of health insurance to the HIV/AIDS patients.70% of the participants recommended to maintain the confidentiality of patient while 30% gave negative reply. Community was opinion that health awareness would reduce (96.7%) the risk of disease while only a small percentage (3.3%) thought for having no impact on prevention. Conclusions: The study showed sufficient knowledge and awareness but negative attitude of community towards patients of HIV/AIDS.