A Study on Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding Dengue Fever Among Parents from a Tertiary care Center in Mangalore, India

Abstract

Introduction: Dengue fever has emerged as an endemic threat in many parts of South India. Therefore, awareness among parents regarding the preventive measures and early identification of symptoms of the disease in children is of prime importance. The present study was conducted to assess the level of awareness among parents regarding various aspects of dengue.

Methods: Questionnaire based descriptive study was conducted in both out-patient and in-patient basis in a Medical College Hospital in Mangalore, Karnataka. Data analysis was done by calculation of the percentage of correct responses and p value to determine the correlation between knowledge, attitude and practice score.

Results: Total of 94 parents were interviewed. Majority were below 30 years of age (45.7%) and had a family income of 10,000 to 50,000 per month (62.8%). Majority of parents (89.4%) had good knowledge about dengue fever. 90.4% of parents had a positive attitude and 89.4% received a good score in practice assessment. Statistically significant association was observed between knowledge and the attitude (p value = 0.005) and between the knowledge and dengue preventive practices (p value = 0.002). Demographic factors like age, sex, family income did not show any significant association with knowledge, attitude and practices while health education had.

Conclusion: Significant association was noted between knowledge and dengue preventive practices. Education had significant association with dengue knowledge, attitude and practices.