1. Assessment of health care workers' knowledge, attitude and risk perception of Buruli ulcer disease in Southern Nigeria.
- Author
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Ekeke N, Meka AO, Chukwu JN, Nwafor CC, Alphonsus C, Mbah OK, Madichie NO, Aduh U, Ogbeifo M, IseOluwa-Adelokiki BO, Edochie JE, Ushaka J, and Ukwaja KN
- Subjects
- Adult, Community Health Workers, Cross-Sectional Studies, Endemic Diseases, Female, Humans, Laboratory Personnel, Male, Middle Aged, Nigeria, Nurses, Referral and Consultation, Surveys and Questionnaires, Attitude of Health Personnel, Buruli Ulcer diagnosis, Clinical Competence, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Health Personnel, Physicians
- Abstract
Background: Poor knowledge of health care workers may be responsible for the under-diagnosis and low notification of Buruli ulcer (BU) in high-burden settings. This study assessed health care workers' knowledge, attitude and risk perception of BU in Southern Nigeria., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 186 health care workers recruited from 58 health facilities in four states of Southern Nigeria. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was administered to all participants., Results: The overall mean knowledge score was 8.8±2.7 (maximum 15). Only 29.0% (54/186) of the respondents had a good knowledge of BU. The mean (SD) attitude score was 4.5±1.2 (maximum 6). Also, 61.3% (114/) of the respondents had a good attitude towards BU. The overall mean (SD) risk perception score was 2.6±1.3 (maximum 5). Only 26.3% (49/) of the respondents had a good risk perception of BU disease. Previous training was an independent predictor of good knowledge (aOR 4.6), good attitude (aOR 3.8) and good risk perception (aOR 2.9) to BU., Conclusions: Health care workers in endemic settings of Nigeria have poor knowledge of and poor risk perception of BU disease. Training of health care workers is recommended to address the identified gaps to ensure earlier diagnosis and referral to specialist centres., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Published
- 2017
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