Epidemiological Study of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Dengue in Residents of Slum Area of Ujjain, MP

Dengue fever is a re-emerging vector-borne viral illness that is endemic in Tropics and poses a major public health burden in many countries of South East Asia. The objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge, attitude and preventive practice among study subjects about dengue fever.

A cross sectional study was carried out among the 400 patients attending urban health center of RDGMC, Ujjain, MP from 1^st to 31^st December, 2012 who came from the catchment area of the center by means of interview method.

The knowledge of respondents was good and most respondents were able to correctly relate to the symptoms of dengue like fever, vomiting, headache and rashes. Gap in the knowledge was observed in the responses regarding breeding sites. Knowledge on various variables regarding preventive measures and management strategies for the disease was high. With regards to KAP scores, 57.5% of participants achieved at least 80% on the knowledge score, 43% obtained at least 80% on the attitude score and 30.25% obtained 80% on the preventive practices scale.

The study delineates the difference in the level of knowledge about the disease which does not commensurate with attitudes and practices directed at reducing the dengue infection prevalence. Dengue disease prevalence can be reduced only by full community involvement which could only be gained by raising community's awareness on the topic and the need to change the attitude and increase the preventive practice against dengue infection.