Knowledge and Preventive Practices Regarding Dengue Fever among Adults Accompanying Patients in a tertiary Care Hospital in Rural Area of sonepat Jha Sanjay Kumar1,*, Singh Sanjeet2, Majra JP3 1Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, BPS Government Medical College For Women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat 2Assistant Professor cum Statistician, Department of Community Medicine, BPS Government Medical College For Women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat 3Professor & Head, Department of Community Medicine, BPS Government Medical College For Women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat *Corresponding author: Dr Sanjay Kumar Jha, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, BPS Government Medical College For Women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat-313105, E-mail: drsanjaykumarjha@gmail.com
Online published on 7 February, 2018. Abstract Background In 2015, there have been large outbreaks of dengue fever (DF) worldwide and Delhi, India, recorded its worst outbreak since 2006 with over 15, 000 cases. Objective To assess the knowledge and preventive practices regarding DF among adults accompanying patients in a tertiary care hospital in rural area of Sonepat. Method Ahospital based cross-sectional study was conducted on 103 randomly selected adults accompanying patients during the period December 2016 and January 2017. A pretested, structured questionnaire was administered through face-to-face interviews. Data were analysed using R software. Results Majority of the respondents (97%) had heard about dengue. The most important source of information was television (47.6%). Maximum participants (87.4%) answered fever as the presenting symptom, whereas (7.8%) did not know any of the symptoms of dengue. More than two third (81.5%) knew that the dengue was transmitted by mosquito bites. Less than half (44.7%) respondents correctly reported biting time of mosquito vector. Furthermore, 81.5% the respondents consulted the physician on getting fever during dengue outbreak. About 88% of participants mentioned wearing of full sleeve clothes as a predominantly used preventive measure against mosquito bite. Conclusions Although the knowledge regarding dengue was high and overall practices were good, but knowledge does not equate with preventive practices. More emphases of health education should be laid on putting the knowledge into practices. Improvements in dengue knowledge and preventive practices are needed to enhance community participation to control dengue outbreak. Top Keywords Dengue, Knowledge, Practices, Rura. Top |