Knowledge, Attitude, Practices and Associated Factors Towards Trachoma Among People Living in Arba Minch Zuria District, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Trachoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world affecting the poorest communities. Despite many interventions undertaken on prevention and control for trachoma, Ethiopia has failed to achieve the 2020 elimination goal. OBJECTIVE: To assess knowledge, attitude, practice and its associated factors toward trachoma infection among people living in Arba Minch Zuria district Gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2019 to June 2020. Data were collected using a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire from 796 randomly selected individuals. Epi Info version 7 was used to enter and clean the data and exported to SPSS V20 for analysis. A multivariable logistic regression analysis model was fitted to identify factors associated with the outcome variables. FINDINGS: Among 796 interviewed participants, 611 (76.8%) had inadequate knowledge toward trachoma infection and 244 (30.7%) had unfavorable attitude. Individuals who had no formal education (AOR=0.365, 95%CI: 0.212–0.626) and primary education (AOR=0.58, 95%CI: 0.35–0.962) were negatively associated with adequate knowledge towards trachoma infection. Being a farmer (AOR=0.063, 95%CI: 0.008–0.52), merchant (AOR=0.022, 95%CI: 0.003–0.194), student (AOR=0.026, 95%CI: 0.003–0.225) or housewife (AOR=0.03, 95%CI: 0.004–0.256) were negatively associated with adequate knowledge. Those study subjects whose wealth index were lowest (AOR=0.49, 95%CI: 0.27–0.878), second (AOR=0.38, 95%CI: 0.21–0.69) and middle (AOR=0.36, 95%CI: 0.199–0.658) percentiles negatively associated with adequate knowledge. A short distance to fetch water (AOR=2.53, 95%CI: 1.18–5.415) was positively associated with adequate knowledge about trachoma infection. Environmental cleanliness (AOR=2.224, 95%CI: 1.518–3.257), being male (AOR=1.848, 95%CI: 1.332–2.565) and distance from home to health facility (AOR=1.845, 95%CI: 1.308–2.600) were significantly associated with attitude status. CONCLUSION: Considerable numbers of people have unfavorable attitude and inadequate knowledge about trachoma infection. Awareness creation through community mobilization and sensitization should be strengthened.