Knowledge about rabies among urban adult residents, Agartala, West Tripura: a cross sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background: India is endemic for rabies accounting for 36% of the world death. Low awareness of the need to seek health care after a dog bite claims the lives of more than 55,000 people each year, mostly Asia and Arica. The objective of the study was to estimate the level of knowledge about rabies among adult population in urban area and also to find out the factors associated with level of knowledge. Methods: The cross sectional study was carried out among 200 adult population of Agartala Municipal Corporation area for a period of one month and study subjects were selected by using multistage sampling technique. A predesigned, pretested, structured interview schedule was used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 20. Chi-square and Fisher's exact was used to find out the factors associated with level of knowledge and p value <0.5 considered as a significant. Results: The present study showed that mean age of the respondents was 45.23±14.7 years. Among them 54.5% were female, 32% home maker and 39% had completed graduation. Out of 200 respondents, 167 respondents were heard about the term ‘Rabies’ i.e., 83.5% and 33 respondent’s i.e., 16.5% never heard about the term ‘Rabies’ but only 20.5% subjects knew correctly that rabies was caused by virus. In our study, adequate knowledge on rabies was found 40% and only one factor i.e., literacy (p=0.002) was found significantly associated with level of knowledge. Conclusions: The study findings indicate that still there is need to be increase adequate level of knowledge about rabies among adult residents in urban area.