KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PREVENTIVE PRACTICES ABOUT DENGUE FEVER AMONG NURSING STUDENT OF TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Dengue fever (DF) is increasingly recognized as one of the world's major vector borne diseases and causes significant morbidity & mortality in most tropical & subtropical countries of the world & had become the most common arboviral diseases of human. Dengue fever is endemic in most part of India & continues to be a public health concern. Dengue vector, human knowledge & human behavior each have been reported to play an important role in the transmission of the diseases. OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine the level of knowledge, attitude & practices regarding Dengue fever among nursing student. 2. To study the relationship of level of knowledge & attitude with preventive practices for dengue fever. METHOD & MATERIAL: A cross sectional study was carried out in nursing student of tertiary care hospital during September to October2012. A prestructured & self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data regarding dengue fever knowledge, attitude & practices from nursing students. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software. Appropriate statistical test was applied to calculate P-value. RESULT: Almost all the participants have heard of DF (94%), the media being the most quoted source of information. Nearly 80.6% participants were aware transmission of Dengue Fever is by mosquito bite. Practices based upon preventive measures were found to be predominantly focused towards prevention of mosquito bites rather than elimination of breeding places. CONCLUSION: Although the knowledge regarding DF & mosquito control measure was quite high among the nursing student but this knowledge was not put into practice.