Background: Worm infections are among the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases worldwide. Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths infections, most common worm infections affecting Rwandan school-aged children, are addressed by the national deworming program since 2014. To date, no published studies have assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the key implementers of the national deworming program conducted at village and school level in Rwanda. This study aimed to assess key stakeholders' knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perspectives about the decentralized national deworming program.
Methods/Principal Findings: We carried out a quantitative, cross-sectional study with complementary in-depth interviews in two districts of Rwanda in June 2021. From the 852 surveyed community health workers and teachers, 54.1% had a knowledge score considered good (≥80%). The mean knowledge score was 78.04%. From the multivariate analysis, lack of training was shown to increase the odds of having poor knowledge (OR 0.487, 95% CI: 0.328-0.722, p <0.001). The in-depths interviews revealed poor water access and hesitance from caregivers as perceived challenges to the success of the deworming program.
Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the importance of training community health workers and schoolteachers on worm infections as they are the key implementers of the deworming program. This would enhance their capacity to provide health education and sensitization on misconceptions and misinformation towards deworming. Moreover, research is needed to assess the impact of poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities on the prevalence of worm infections in Rwanda.
BT - PLoS neglected tropical diseases C1 -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37552654
DA - 08/2023 DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010759 IS - 8 J2 - PLoS Negl Trop Dis LA - eng M3 - Research Article N2 -Background: Worm infections are among the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases worldwide. Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths infections, most common worm infections affecting Rwandan school-aged children, are addressed by the national deworming program since 2014. To date, no published studies have assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the key implementers of the national deworming program conducted at village and school level in Rwanda. This study aimed to assess key stakeholders' knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perspectives about the decentralized national deworming program.
Methods/Principal Findings: We carried out a quantitative, cross-sectional study with complementary in-depth interviews in two districts of Rwanda in June 2021. From the 852 surveyed community health workers and teachers, 54.1% had a knowledge score considered good (≥80%). The mean knowledge score was 78.04%. From the multivariate analysis, lack of training was shown to increase the odds of having poor knowledge (OR 0.487, 95% CI: 0.328-0.722, p <0.001). The in-depths interviews revealed poor water access and hesitance from caregivers as perceived challenges to the success of the deworming program.
Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the importance of training community health workers and schoolteachers on worm infections as they are the key implementers of the deworming program. This would enhance their capacity to provide health education and sensitization on misconceptions and misinformation towards deworming. Moreover, research is needed to assess the impact of poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities on the prevalence of worm infections in Rwanda.
PY - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 17 T2 - PLoS neglected tropical diseases TI - Assessing the knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perspectives of stakeholders of the deworming program in rural Rwanda. UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0010759&type=printable VL - 17 SN - 1935-2735 ER -