Community Health Awareness on Diphtheria Prevention among Residents of a Local Government Area in Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background/Objective: This study investigated community health awareness on diphtheria prevention among residents of a local government area in Edo State. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional descriptive survey was adopted for the study. This involved investigation and gathering of data from a population of 117,209 individuals with different characteristics from which a sample of 399. was selected, Data collection was by means of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The Kuder-Richardson-20 (KR.20) was employed for the reliability coefficient which yielded 0.77 through test re-test method. Results and Conclusion: Results revealed low awareness on diphtheria among majority (93.5%), 24.1% had moderate awareness, 2.0% had high awareness. 93.5% claimed there had never been community awareness campaign on diphtheria in their community, 85.7% reported never to have attended seminar/health talks on diphtheria infection. Gender and educational background were significantly associated with community health awareness on diphtheria (p = .000). The study recommends that since the level of health awareness was low among the population, nursing practitioners should consider community health awareness campaign on diphtheria in communities in other to raise awareness. Females and those with low educational background, should be targeted to ensure they seek information on diphtheria to protect their health.