Impact of Rabies Education on the Knowledge of the Disease among Primary School Children in Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

Rabies education has been proposed for prevention of the disease especially among children who are a high-risk group. This study was carried out to assess the impact of rabies education among primary school children in Samaru Zaria, Nigeria. Pupils (228) were selected from six primary schools representing public and private schools. Questionnaires were designed, marked and matched (pre and post) for each participant with a maximum of 22 marks obtainable. The scores were categorized as very good (15-22), good (11-14), fair (8-10) and poor (<7). Most of the respondents (103, 45.2%) were between the ages of 12-13 years and majority (130, 57%) were females. The children’s parents were mainly civil servants (56.1%) with up to tertiary level of education (104, 45.6%). Up to 40% of the respondents said they never heard of rabies and those who had heard about it were taught by their parents (44, 32.5%) and teachers (42, 30.3%). The pre-test result indicated only 8 (3.5%) had very good knowledge and the majority (127, 55.7%) had poor knowledge. Post intervention, however, 207 (90.8%) had very good knowledge of the disease while none (0%) had poor knowledge about rabies. There was a statistically significant difference in the knowledge about rabies pre and post intervention among the study population (p<0.05). Prior knowledge about rabies and whether or not the respondents like dogs significantly affected their mean knowledge scores (p<0.05). This shows that rabies intervention by educating pupils about the disease is a very viable tool towards rabies prevention and should be employed for this purpose.