Abstract : Introduction: Objective: Method

Disha Mehta

Harsha Solanki

M P Singh

Payal Patel

Pooja Umat

Rahul Chauhan

Sanket Shukla

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:: 29 ::
Original Article Healthline Journal Volume 6 Issue 2 (July - December 2015)
A Study on Knowledge, Attitude & Practice Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases
in an Urban Area of Bhavnagar
Disha Mehta , Harsha Solanki , Payal Patel , Pooja Umat , Rahul Chauhan , Sanket Shukla , MP Singh
1 2 3 3 3 3 4
1 2 3 4Resident, Assistant Professor, MBBS Students, Professor & Head
Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Bhavnagar
Dr.Disha Mehta, E mail:dpmrajkot@gmail.comCorrespondence:
Abstract :
Introduction:
Objective:
Method:
Results:
Conclusions:
Key words:
India being a populous country with many health issues wherein Mosquito Borne
Diseases (MBDs) are also a health threatening condition including Gujarat. To study Knowledge,
Attitude & Practice Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases in an Urban Area of Bhavnagar, Gujarat. A
community based, cross sectional study was carried out during April-June 2014 in field practice area of
Urban Health Training Centre (UHTC), facilitated by Community Medicine Department of Government
Medical College & Sir Takhatsinhji Hospital, Bhavnagar, with sample size of 135. One adult respondent from
each selected households were selected randomly & after taking verbal consent, the respondent was
interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. There was good knowledge of MBDs as
majority (88.1%) respondents were aware about MBDs & 3/4 (76.3 %) were aware about preventive
measures against MBDs. In the present study, 68.1% fever cases were found of which 88% consulted
government doctor for treatment. Most of (94.8%) respondents were using personal protective measures.
Knowledge regarding MBDs was good & majority of the study population were practicing
preventive measures at individual level as well as at community level.
Knowledge Attitude Practice, MBDs, Urban area of Bhavnagar
th
Introduction :
Mosquito Borne Diseases (MBDs) are major
health problem in India & growing urban problems
because of unplanned urbanization, industrialization
& excessive population growth coupled with rural to
urban migration. Gujarat is also one of the endemic
states of malaria & other mosquito borne diseases.
Anopheles species bites transmit malaria; Aedes
transmits dengue, chicken guinea, yellow fever etc.
Culex and Anopheles both transmit lymphatic
Filariasis. Government of India is working for
controlling transmission of vector borne diseases.
Government has launched National Malaria Control
Program in 1952 which was renamed as National
Vector Borne Disease Control Program in 2003 which
is one of the most comprehensive and multifaceted
public health activity including prevention & control
of mosquito borne diseases.
Environmental control, mainly source
reduction, is potentially the ideal method for
[1]
[2]
controlling mosquito breeding. It requires public
motivation through health education & usually
legislation & law enforcement to encourage
community participation. Along with environmental
control, personal protective measures such as
mosquito nets, screening, repellents, anti-mosquito
coils & vaporizers are also equally important to
protect one against mosquito bites. For this,
Government is also providing Long Lasting
Insecticides Treated Bed Nets (LLITNs) for
community. Hence Community participation is
essential for the prevention & control of an outbreak
of mosquito borne disease. For developing a
suitable & effective health education strategy, it is
inevitable to understand the level of knowledge of the
community, their attitude & practices regarding
mosquito borne diseases. With this background, it
was decided to carry out this study in the urban
locality of Bhavnagar city.
Hence, present study was undertaken to assess
Knowledge, Attitude & Practice Regarding Mosquito
[3,4]
:: 30 ::
Mehta et al
Borne Diseases in an urban area of Bhavnagar,
Gujarat.
A community based, cross sectional study was
carried out in a field practice area of Urban Health
Training Centre (UHTC), which is facilitated by
Community Medicine Department of Government
Medical College and Sir Takhtasinji Hospital,
Bhavnagar, during April – June 2014. With
assumption of 50% knowledge regarding MBDs &
10% absolute error & applying it with 4pq/L , sample
size comes as 100. Urban field practice area of UHTC
is having 1350 total households, so every 10
household was selected by systematic random
sampling, hence 135 household were selected. One
adult respondent from each selected households
were selected randomly & after taking verbal
consent, the respondent was interviewed using a
semi-structured questionnaire. The respondents
from the selected households, if not willing to give
information, were counseled & if still not ready to
participate, immediate next household was selected
for the study. The information was collected
regarding awareness of mosquito borne diseases, the
diseases spread by them, their breeding places, signs
and symptoms of mosquito borne diseases,
treatment seeking behaviour & prevention & control
measures used by them.
Data entry and data analysis was
done in Microsoft Excel 2007.
Present study is based upon responses
received from 135 respondents. Among respondents,
maximum respondents (55.6%) were from 26-45
years; 54.8% were male & 45.2% females.
Most of the participants (88.9%) were educated.
Maximum respondents (31.1%) were engaged in
labour work. Most (94.14%) of the respondents were
from lower socioeconomic class. [Table 1]
Method :
Data Analysis :
Results :
2
th
Table 1: Sociodemographic characteristics (N=135)
Sociodemographic
Characteristics
Age (yrs)
Gender
Education
Occupation
Socio-economic class
18-25 32 23.7
26-35 41 30.4
36-45 34 25.2
46-55 18 13.3
>55 10 07.4
Male 74 54.8
Female 61 45.2
Illiterate 15 11.1
Primary 29 21.5
Secondary 28 20.7
Higher secondary 47 34.8
Graduation 12 08.9
Post graduation 04 03.0
Housewife 15 11.1
Labourer 42 31.1
Shop owner 19 14.1
Student 20 14.8
Other 03 02.2
(Class I) Upper 00 0
(Class II) Upper middle 08 05.9
(Class III) Lower middle 27 20.0
(Class IV) Upper lower 61 45.2
(Class V) Lower 39 28.9
Frequency %
Almost 88.1% respondents were aware about
MBDs. Regarding diseases transmitted by mosquito,
40.3% answered malaria & dengue, 33.6%
interviewees mentioned malaria, 13.4% mentioned
dengue & 12.6% mentioned Chikungunya. Major
source of information was newspaper (73.9%).
However, none of them knew that filariasis, dengue
and Japanese encephalitis are related with mosquito.
Most of the respondents (55.5%) answered that
MBDs transmitted by mosquito bite during night
KAP Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases…
:: 31 ::
Healthline Journal Volume 6 Issue 2 (July - December 2015)
time. A question was asked regarding the breeding
places of mosquitoes, more than half (58.8%)
responded replied drains or polluted water, while
27.7% of people replied clean water collections while
only some (13.5%) replied garbage or green plants. It
was observed that 71.9% respondents had mosquito
breeding places in the vicinity. [Table 2]
Table 2: Awareness about mosquito borne diseases
Aware of mosquito
borne disease (N=135)
Diseases transmitted by it (n = 119)
Sources of information (n=119)
Time of bite (n=119)
Breeding places of mosquito (n=119)
Breeding place in vicinity (n=135)
Yes 119 88.1
No 16 11.9
Malaria 40 33.6
Dengue 16 13.4
Malaria & Dengue 48 40.3
Chikungunya 15 12.6
Newspaper 88 73.9
Radio 02 01.7
TV 29 24.4
Day 15 11.1
Night 75 55.5
Night & day 29 21.5
Clean water collection 33 27.7
Drain & polluted water 70 58.8
Garbage/Green plant 16 13.5
Yes 97 71.9
No 38 28.1
Frequency %
In the present study, majority (76.3 %) were
aware about preventive measures against MBDs of
which majority (68%) replied keeping surrounding
clean & proper drainage will help in reducing
mosquito breeding. Most of the respondents (88.9%)
knew government measures. However respondents
were not satisfied with the govt. measures as they
mentioned they are not enough to reduce mosquito
breeding. [Table 3]
Table 3: Awareness about preventive measures
against mosquito borne diseases
Aware about preventive
measures ency
If yes what preventive measures? (n=103)
Aware about the government measures (n=135)
If, yes , what measures (n=120)
Are Government measures enough? (n=120)
Yes 103 76.3
No 032 23.7
Keeping surrounding clean
proper drainage
Spraying chemicals on water
& keeping the surrounding clean
Yes 120 88.9
No 015 11.1
Chemical spraying & fogging 41 34.2
Cleaning of garbage & chemical
spraying
Regular cleaning of drainage 38 31.6
Yes 34 28.3
No 86 71.7
Frequ- %
68 66.0
&
35 34.0
41 34.2
On inquiry about fever in last fifteen days in
family, 68.1% fever cases were found. Majority of
them (88.0%) consulted doctor & they preferred to
visit government doctor for treatment. [Table 4]
Table 4: Attitude about mosquito borne diseases
Signs and symptoms of mosquito
born disease in last 15 days(n=135)
Taken treatment for above problem (n=92)
If yes, from where (n=81)
ency
Fever alone 40 29.6
Fever with chills & rigors 52 38.5
No signs and symptoms 43 31.8
Yes 81 88.0
No 11 12.0
Govt. hospital 43 53.1
Private hospital 24 29.6
Home remedy 14 17.3
Frequ-
:: 32 ::
The people were questioned about personal
protective measures being taken by them. In the
present study almost all (94.7%) respondents were
using personal protective measures. Only 5.3%
respondents were not taking any preventive
measures. Among users, most (52.5%) of the
respondents were using repellents in various forms
like mosquito coils, creams and vapours for
prevention against mosquito bites. 28.9% people
were using mosquito bed net & 13.3% mentioned use
of protective cloths. [Graph 1]
Graph 1: Use of personal protective measures
toward mosquito borne diseases
Discussion :
The present study showed better awareness
amongst the population (88.1%) probably due to
good IEC activities in the state. There was good
knowledge about correct mosquito breeding places
among 86.5% respondents which shows the impact
of effective IEC by government. But still 13.5% of
study subjects consider garbage as the breeding place
for mosquito. In a study by Sharma SK et al in
Madhya Pradesh found that majority of their study
subjects did not have knowledge about mosquito
breeding places. A study in Karnataka found 55%
respondents having correct knowledge regarding
breeding sites of mosquitoes which was low as
compared to our study. Knowledge of preventive
measures was also good among study population in
this study.
In the present study, 40.3% respondents had
knowledge that mosquito bite causes malaria &
dengue, 33.6% interviewees mentioned malaria,
13.4% mentioned dengue & 12.6% mentioned
Chikungunya. Surendren SN in their study in
Srilanka found that 71% of study participants were
able to name at least one disease transmitted by
mosquitoes.
In the present study it was found that 94.7% of
study participants were using one or other personal
protective measures against mosquito bites. In the
[5]
[6]
[7]
present study, bed net was used by only 28.9% of
study subjects but none of the study subjects were
using insecticide treated bed net (ITN). The
awareness about use of ITN was found poor in the
study subjects. Yerpude PN et al in their study in
urban slum of South India found that 90% of study
participants were using one or other personal
protective measures against mosquito bite & they
were found to use multiple methods at the same time.
In them, most commonly used method was the
mosquito coil (52.20%) followed by using bed net
(33.14 %).
Most of the people in the study were aware of
“malaria & dengue is caused by mosquito bite”.
However they were not aware of other mosquito
borne diseases. Majority were using preventive
measures to protect themselves from mosquito bite
but the use of insecticide treated bed nets was found
very low. In this study, more than half of the people
preferred government facility in case of sickness.
Knowledge regarding malaria & dengue
transmission was good while knowledge regarding
other mosquito borne diseases was poor. The people
should be made aware that mosquito bite causes
other diseases also. Insecticide treated bed-net is a
good weapon to fight against mosquito borne disease
& strong social or commercial marketing of these
products should be done.
[8]
Conclusion :
Recommendations :
References :
1. K.Park. Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine;
Bhanot Publication, 22 Edition p-383-391; 713-718.
2. Kishor J. National Health Programmes of India, VI ed. New Delhi:
Century Publication 2006; p.186.
3. DGHS. Investigation & control of outbreaks- Dengue fever &
Dengue haemorrhagic fever. NICD, Delhi, 2001.
4. GOG. Enhanced Malaria control project Gujarat state-
Malariology course for Medical officers of PHCs, Learner's guide
part-I, 2002-2003. State Malaria control society, Gandhinagar,
Gujarat.
5. Sharma SK, Jalees S, Kumar K, Rahman SJ. Knowledge, attitude
and beliefs about malaria in a tribal area of Bastar district
(Madhya Pradesh); Indian J Public Health. 1993 Oct Dec;
37(4):129-32.
6. Ravikumar K, Gururaj G. Community Perception Regarding
Mosquito-borne Diseases in Karnataka State, India. Dengue
Bulletin 2006; 30:270-77.
7. Surendran SN, Kajatheepan A. Perception and personal
protective measures toward mosquito bites by communities in
Jaffna District, northern Sri Lanka; J Am Mosq Control Assoc.
2007 Jun;23(2):182-6.
8. Yerpude PN, Jogdand KS, Jogdand M. A Study on Awareness and
Practice about Preventive Methods against Mosquito Bite among
Households in an Urban Slum Area of South India. International
Journal of Recent Trends in Science And Technology, Volume 8,
Issue 2, 2013 pp 69-71.
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Mehta et al KAP Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases…


A Study on Knowledge, Attitude &amp; Practice Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases in an Urban Area of Bhavnagar

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