Knowledge, attitude and practices of preventive measures in leptospirosis among farmers in a lower-middle income country: evidence from a divisional health area of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction: Sri Lanka continues to have a high case burden of  leptospirosis despite rigorous preventive activities undertaken, with significant morbidity and mortality among econom ically active age groups. Hence, it is time to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices on preventive measures am ong high-risk groups to generate evidence needed to design new interventions. Objectives: To describe the knowledge, attitude and practices of pre ventive measures in leptospirosis among farmers Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted a mong 426 farmers in Pelmadulla Medical Officer of Health (MOH) Area. Taking one farmer community as a cluster, seve n clusters were chosen using cluster sampling method out of the 28 farmer communities registered. Data were coll ected using a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire. The knowledge, attitude and practice scores were calc ulated based on a scoring system prepared with expert inputs. Results: The response rate of the study was 97%. The sample  mainly consisted of 40-59 years (n=227; 53.2%), predominantly of males 91.1% (n=388) and majority (69.7%) had se condary education. It was evident that 81.9% (n=349) of the study sample had satisfactory knowledge with a mean of 7.88 ( SD=1.38) while 72.8% (n=310) of the study sample had a good attitude with a mean of 7.54 (SD=1.578). Only 16.4% (n= 70) of the study sample had good practice-scores on leptospirosis preventive measures with a mean of 12.03 (SD=2.8). Conclusions & Recommendations: Knowledge and attitudes on lept ospirosis prevention were satisfactory among farmers, though practices were poor. Behavioural modification-focused aware ness programs for changing the practice of preventive measures need to be planned to address the identified gaps in knowl edge and attitude.