Attitude of Accredited Social Health Activists towards Creating Awareness on Oral Cancer in Rural Community of Chikkaballapur District, Karnataka

BACKGROUND: Accredited social health activists (ASHAs) form a link between rural community and health system in India; hence, it is important to understand their attitude to render health services. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study were to develop a tool for measuring the attitude to create awareness on oral cancer (OC) using theory of reasoned action and planned behavior (TRA/PB) to the community and to assess the attitude of ASHAs about the same. METHODOLOGY: A culturally relevant self-administered questionnaire was developed based on TRA/PB which was subjected to validity and reliability and then pilot tested. The sample size was estimated to be 278. A cross-sectional research design was used to assess the attitude of ASHAs. Multistage sampling technique was carried out to include ASHAs from three of six taluks of Chikkaballapur district. RESULTS: The content validity ratio of the items was in the range of 0.6–0.7, and Cronbach's alpha was 0.762. Exploratory factor analysis provided three factors with eigenvalue >1. The mean age of study participants was 31.8 years. The mean work experience was 5.7 years. The attitude of ASHAs was favorable (82.45%) as they believed that it was their responsibility to contribute in disease prevention (normative belief). Some had seen suffering of OC patients closely (behavioral beliefs) and few opted to follow their authority instructions (perceived behavioral control). CONCLUSION: The developed tool with good validity and reliability was used to assess the attitude of ASHAs. Their attitude was favorable to educate the community about OC and contribute in disease prevention.