Assessment Of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (Kap) Regarding Prevention Of Communicable Diseases Among Rural Communities

Abstract

Communicable diseases continue to affect rural communities through waterborne, foodborne, respiratory, vector-borne and vaccine-preventable routes. Prevention depends not only on availability of services but also on community knowledge, attitude and routine practice. Safe water, sanitation and hygiene are recognised public health requirements, and hand hygiene is a simple measure for reducing spread of germs. A community-based cross-sectional study design was adopted among 300 rural adult participants selected by multistage sampling. Data were collected using a structured KAP questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic details, knowledge questions, attitude statements and practice items. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test and Pearson correlation were used for analysis. Among participants, 38.7% had good knowledge, 45.7% had moderate knowledge and 15.6% had poor knowledge. Favourable attitude was observed among 47.3%, while good preventive practice was observed among 33.7%. Education, socioeconomic status, sanitation facility, source of drinking water and source of health information showed statistically significant associations with KAP levels. Knowledge had a moderate positive correlation with practice (r=0.46, p<0.001).