Assessment of the knowledge, Attitude and Awareness of Residents of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, Towards Worm Infestation and De-worming

Abstract

Due to the poor socioeconomic conditions and severe lack of good hygienic living conditions in developing countries of the world, worm infestation has become widely prevalent and is a major public health problem. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of residents of Jos towards worm infestations and de-worming. This involved a cross-sectional study in urban slum of Jos North L.G.A of Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. The Yamane method was used to randomly select 399 residents of Jos, which included adults from age 15 to 60 years of both sexes. The results obtained were analyzed using Chi-square test and descriptive statistics. Most respondents (about 50.0%) had moderate level of knowledge about worm infestation, which was only associated with educational level (p-value = 0.034) and age group (p-value = 0.0021). Attitude towards worm infestation was good, while that towards de-worming was very poor. However, since attitude towards de-worming was poor, only knowledge provision is inadequate, hence attitudinal change must be imbibed to reduce risk and incidence of worm infestation.