Knowledge, attitudes and practices survey among health care workers and tuberculosis patients in Iraq

ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional study was made of 500 patients and 500 health care workers randomly selected from 250 primary health care centers throughout Iraq to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and practices towards tuberculosis [TB]. Using structured questionnaire interviews, the study showed 64.4% of patients had good knowledge, while 54.8% had negative attitudes and practices towards TB. The 2 most important sources of patient information about TB were physicians and television. Of health care workers, 95.5% had good knowledge about TB and this was significantly associated with age and job duration. By contrast, health care workers' practice was poor only 38.2% handled suspected TB cases correctly. The national TB programme in Iraq has had a good impact on knowledge of TB patients and health care workers