Awareness and knowledge of sustainable development goals among health workers in Bida, north-central Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are the latest intervention focused on ensuring global development. The failures of the millennium development goal, which was the previous global strategy, have been hinged on poor awareness and knowledge of critical stakeholders among other reasons for poor performance in most developing countries. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study among a group of critical stakeholders (health workers) to assess their awareness and knowledge of the SDGs since its inception in 2015. We used a scoring system for some key components of the SDGs and analyzed the obtained data. Results: Of the 103 health workers that partook, 63.1% were males and 36.9% were females. Forty-eight percent of the respondents had good knowledge of the SDGs. Male gender among the participants was predictive of good knowledge whereas the professional affiliation of the participants did not significantly predict good knowledge of the SDGs. Conclusionand Recommendation: Awareness and knowledge of SDGs among participants was good. We recommend the introduction of SDGs in the curriculum of health workers with special focus for female professionals to enhance attainment of the goals.