Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, Practices and Risk Factors Towards Urogenital Schistosomiasis among School-Age Children in Anambra State, Nigeria

Aims: The aim was to Assess the level of Knowledge, Attitude, Practices and Risk Factors Towards Urogenital Schistosomiasis Among School-age Children in Anambra State.

Study Design: This study was designed as a community based cross-sectional study conducted in three rural public primary schools within a community settings, in three endemic Local Government Areas, (Awka South, Orumba North and Ogbaru Local Government Areas) each from the three Senatorial districts (Anambra Central, Anambra South and Anambra North respectively) of Anambra State, South Eastern Nigeria . A twenty one item structured questionnaire containing closed ended questions was used as the instruments for data collection and all questions were prepared in focus of the objectives of the study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in three public primary schools in a selected Local Government Area within the three senatorial zones of Anambra State, Nigeria between April to December, 2023.

Methodology: A total of 399 questionaire were distributed and completely retrieved from primary school children in three randomly selected primary schools from the three senatorial zones, namely, Anambra Central, Anambra North and Anambra South. It was analyzed using a descriptive statistical analysis and qualitative data were presented on tables, percentages and charts while inferential analysis were done using simple Statistical technique. Hypothesis were tested using odd ratio statistics at 5% which were considered statistically significant. Data were analysed using SPSS for WINDOWS (version 23.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). P-values < 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: Out of the 399 pupils, Anambra North had the highest number with 171 (42.9%) pupils, followed by Anambra Central with 118 (29.5%) pupils and then Anambra South which had 110 (27.6%) pupils. This study showed that there was high level of awareness of the disease Urogenital Schistosomiasis (UgS) among school-aged children in the study areas in Anambra State. It showed that 65.7% of the total population of 399 school-aged children from primary schools in the three selected communities, each from the three Senatorial zones had good knowledge of the disease, while 34.3% had poor knowledge of Urogenital Schistosomiasis. This study showed that there was a significant relationship between the Age of respondent (χ2 = 12.786, df = 4, p = 0.0035), class level (χ2 = 8.57, df = 4, p = 0.016) and knowledge of UgS but Gender was not significantly associated with knowledge of UgS (χ2 = 2.0, df = 3, p = 0.2093). There was also, no significant association between Risk Factors and Socio- demographics of the study population as (p>0.05) for Age, Sex and Class group. On the patronage and utilization of Praziquantel, the choice drug for the treatment and prevention, 134(33.9%) took Praziquantel for the purpose of prevention of the disease. 254(63.7%) and 107(26.8%) pupils took Praziquantel because teachers and health workers gave it to them respectively.

Conclusion: This study has showed that there is a remarkable increase in the level of awareness and reduction in prevalence rate of Urogenital schistosomiasis in Anambra State.