Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices regarding Dog Bites and its Management to Prevent Rabies among Cases Attending an Urban Health Center in Bangalore City
Abstract
Introduction: Dog bite is a daily event of medical importance. Majority of the victims of dog bite may not be adopting the correct management due to lack of awareness, false beliefs and incorrect practices.
Objective: To determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding dog bites and its management in victims of dog bites seeking care at an urban health center in Bangalore Urban, Karnataka.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the victims of dog bites of any category seeking health care at an urban health center in Karnataka. Face validated interview schedule was administered to the 151 subjects selected by convenience sampling. The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 21.
Results: The mean age of the study subjects was 39.7 ± 14.8 years. The mean knowledge score was found to be 9.9 ± 2.6 and the median score was 10 (IQR = 8,12). The majority of the subjects (85.4%) were aware of a disease caused by dog bites whereas only some (35.8%) of them could name the disease. The mean attitude scores of the subjects were 5.1 ± 1.7. About 37.7% of them felt that vaccination could lead to adverse effects in the population. The key practice of washing the bitten area with soap and water in the current dog bite was seen among 15.2% of subjects. A significant association was seen between this practice with the educational score on applying the Fisher exact test with a p value of 0.024.
Conclusion: The knowledge regarding dog bites was good among the subjects and the attitude and practices were poor.
How to cite this article:
Kannan R, Johnson A R, Thimmaiah S, Ramesh N. Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices regarding Dog Bites and Their Management to Prevent Rabies among Cases Attending an Urban Health Center in Bangalore City. APCRI J. 2023;25(2):18-24.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0973.5038.202312
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