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Background
Trachoma is a preventable and treatable disease caused by Chlamydia trachomatis which is the leading cause of blindness in the world affecting mostly the poorest community. Despite so many intervention undertaken on prevention and control for trachoma, Ethiopia is failed to achieve 2020 elimination goal for trachoma. We hypothesized that the knowledge of communities towards trachoma was inadequate in the study area.
Methods
a community based cross sectional study was conducted in Arba Minch zuria district from December 2019 to June 2020. The total sample size was allocated by probability proportional to size to each kebele based on the number of households they had. Then, systematic random sampling was employed to select 811 study participants from the five kebeles. Data were collected using a pretested interviewer administered structured questionnaire and then entered into EPI/INFO version 7 and exported to SPSS V20 for analysis.
Findings:
All of the respondents heard about trachoma. Less than one forth 185 (23.2%) of the study subjects had adequate knowledge towards trachoma. One hundred forty eight (18.6%) strongly agreed that trachoma can be transmitted through gene. On the other hand, 240 (30.1%) of the respondents were unsure that trichiasis patients may loss vision if not operated. Factors like education, occupation, walking distance from home to clean water source and wealth index were significantly associated with knowledge status of the participants.
Conclusion
the proportion of people who had adequate knowledge about trachoma and trichiasis was low. Attention should be given by the district health office, regional government and different stakeholders, who designing and implementing trachoma elimination programs especially improving awareness of community regarding trachoma and trichiasis. Interventions with the F and E components of SAFE strategy are also strongly recommended.
Keywords
trachoma, Arba Minch zuria, trichiasis, Ethiopia
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A new preprint design is coming!
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This is a preprint, a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Research
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Prescreen
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Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
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History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 13 May, 2021
No community comments so far
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Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Background
Trachoma is a preventable and treatable disease caused by Chlamydia trachomatis which is the leading cause of blindness in the world affecting mostly the poorest community. Despite so many intervention undertaken on prevention and control for trachoma, Ethiopia is failed to achieve 2020 elimination goal for trachoma. We hypothesized that the knowledge of communities towards trachoma was inadequate in the study area.
Methods
a community based cross sectional study was conducted in Arba Minch zuria district from December 2019 to June 2020. The total sample size was allocated by probability proportional to size to each kebele based on the number of households they had. Then, systematic random sampling was employed to select 811 study participants from the five kebeles. Data were collected using a pretested interviewer administered structured questionnaire and then entered into EPI/INFO version 7 and exported to SPSS V20 for analysis.
Findings:
All of the respondents heard about trachoma. Less than one forth 185 (23.2%) of the study subjects had adequate knowledge towards trachoma. One hundred forty eight (18.6%) strongly agreed that trachoma can be transmitted through gene. On the other hand, 240 (30.1%) of the respondents were unsure that trichiasis patients may loss vision if not operated. Factors like education, occupation, walking distance from home to clean water source and wealth index were significantly associated with knowledge status of the participants.
Conclusion
the proportion of people who had adequate knowledge about trachoma and trichiasis was low. Attention should be given by the district health office, regional government and different stakeholders, who designing and implementing trachoma elimination programs especially improving awareness of community regarding trachoma and trichiasis. Interventions with the F and E components of SAFE strategy are also strongly recommended.
Figure 1
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