1Professor, PSG IMSR, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
2Professor, Consultant Pulmonologist, Bala Hospitals, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
3Senior Resident, PSG IMSR, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
India is the second most populous country in the world, but India has more new TB cases than any other country, with high mortality. Under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, much emphasis has been laid on health education and counselling of tuberculosis patients to ensure adherence to treatment and achieve 95% cure rate. Not many studies have been done among paramedical students to assess adequacy of knowledge on tuberculosis.
The aim of this study is to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice skills in tuberculosis care amongst final year students of undergraduate paramedical courses (pharmacy, physiotherapy and nursing) and also to evaluate differences of awareness between them.
This study was a cross-sectional survey conducted for final year students of nursing, physiotherapy and pharmacy using a self-administered questionnaire designed and validated by a panel of subject experts. In all, 152 students were surveyed and data collected were analysed with SPSS software.
The present study showed that adequacy of knowledge about tuberculosis amongst final year paramedical students was generally low. Adequacy of knowledge on tuberculosis was better amongst physiotherapy and nursing students as compared with pharmacy students. On the contrary, knowledge on how to diagnose case of tuberculosis was better amongst pharmacy students (53.3%) compared with physiotherapy and nursing students. Knowledge on special topics like multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and public health was lacking amongst all these categories.
Overall and domain-specific knowledge is found to be poor among final year paramedical students. Improvement in knowledge is expected to aid in primary and secondary prevention against tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice skills (KAP), Paramedical students, Tuberculosis care, Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)
