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Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares Chikungunya (CHIK) infection to be endemic in South Asia. Despite its first outbreak in Pakistan, no documented evidence exists which reveals the knowledge or awareness of healthcare students and workers (HCSW) regarding CHIK, its spread, symp...

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Autores principales: Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain, Khan, Yusra Habib, Tanveer, Nida, Bukhsh, Allah, Khan, Amer Hayat, Aftab, Raja Ahsan, Khan, Omaid Hayat, Khan, Tahir Mehmood
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6119596/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30186686
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5481
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author Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
Khan, Yusra Habib
Tanveer, Nida
Bukhsh, Allah
Khan, Amer Hayat
Aftab, Raja Ahsan
Khan, Omaid Hayat
Khan, Tahir Mehmood
author_facet Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
Khan, Yusra Habib
Tanveer, Nida
Bukhsh, Allah
Khan, Amer Hayat
Aftab, Raja Ahsan
Khan, Omaid Hayat
Khan, Tahir Mehmood
author_sort Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares Chikungunya (CHIK) infection to be endemic in South Asia. Despite its first outbreak in Pakistan, no documented evidence exists which reveals the knowledge or awareness of healthcare students and workers (HCSW) regarding CHIK, its spread, symptoms, treatment and prevention. Since CHIK is an emergent infection in Pakistan, poor disease knowledge may result in a significant delay in diagnosis and treatment. The current study was aimed to evaluate the awareness and knowledge of CHIK among HCSW. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among HCSW from teaching institutes and hospitals in seven provinces of Pakistan. We collected information on socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and their knowledge by using a 30-item questionnaire. The cumulative knowledge score (CKS) was calculated by correct answers with maximum score of 22. The relationship between demographics and knowledge score was evaluated by using appropriate statistical methods. RESULTS: There were 563 respondents; mean age 25.2 ± 5.9 years with female preponderance (62.5%). Of these, 319 (56.7%) were aware of CHIK infection before administering the survey. The average knowledge score was 12.8 ± 4.1 (% knowledge score: 58.2%). Only 31% respondents had good disease knowledge while others had fair (36.4%) and poor (32.6%) knowledge. Out of five knowledge domains, domain III (vector, disease spread and transmission) and V (prevention and treatment) scored lowest among all i.e. percent score 44.5% and 54.1%, respectively. We found that socio-demographic characteristics had no influence on knowledge score of the study participants. CONCLUSION: Approximately one-half of participants were not aware of CHIK infection and those who were aware had insufficient disease knowledge. Findings of the current study underscore the dire need of educational interventions not only for health care workers but also for students, irrespective to the discipline of study.
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spelling pubmed-61195962018-09-05 Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain Khan, Yusra Habib Tanveer, Nida Bukhsh, Allah Khan, Amer Hayat Aftab, Raja Ahsan Khan, Omaid Hayat Khan, Tahir Mehmood PeerJ Infectious Diseases BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares Chikungunya (CHIK) infection to be endemic in South Asia. Despite its first outbreak in Pakistan, no documented evidence exists which reveals the knowledge or awareness of healthcare students and workers (HCSW) regarding CHIK, its spread, symptoms, treatment and prevention. Since CHIK is an emergent infection in Pakistan, poor disease knowledge may result in a significant delay in diagnosis and treatment. The current study was aimed to evaluate the awareness and knowledge of CHIK among HCSW. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among HCSW from teaching institutes and hospitals in seven provinces of Pakistan. We collected information on socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and their knowledge by using a 30-item questionnaire. The cumulative knowledge score (CKS) was calculated by correct answers with maximum score of 22. The relationship between demographics and knowledge score was evaluated by using appropriate statistical methods. RESULTS: There were 563 respondents; mean age 25.2 ± 5.9 years with female preponderance (62.5%). Of these, 319 (56.7%) were aware of CHIK infection before administering the survey. The average knowledge score was 12.8 ± 4.1 (% knowledge score: 58.2%). Only 31% respondents had good disease knowledge while others had fair (36.4%) and poor (32.6%) knowledge. Out of five knowledge domains, domain III (vector, disease spread and transmission) and V (prevention and treatment) scored lowest among all i.e. percent score 44.5% and 54.1%, respectively. We found that socio-demographic characteristics had no influence on knowledge score of the study participants. CONCLUSION: Approximately one-half of participants were not aware of CHIK infection and those who were aware had insufficient disease knowledge. Findings of the current study underscore the dire need of educational interventions not only for health care workers but also for students, irrespective to the discipline of study. PeerJ Inc. 2018-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6119596/ /pubmed/30186686 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5481 Text en ©2018 Mallhi et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Infectious Diseases
Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
Khan, Yusra Habib
Tanveer, Nida
Bukhsh, Allah
Khan, Amer Hayat
Aftab, Raja Ahsan
Khan, Omaid Hayat
Khan, Tahir Mehmood
Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
title Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
title_full Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
title_fullStr Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
title_full_unstemmed Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
title_short Awareness and knowledge of Chikungunya infection following its outbreak in Pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
title_sort awareness and knowledge of chikungunya infection following its outbreak in pakistan among health care students and professionals: a nationwide survey
topic Infectious Diseases
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6119596/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30186686
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5481
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