Diarrhoea-related knowledge and practice of physicians in urban slums of Kolkata, India

Diarrhoeal management practices are unsatisfactory in India especially in the slum areas. Dearth of information regarding physicians' diarrhoea-related knowledge and practice in India ncessitated this cross-sectional study of allopathic practitioners in the slums of Kolkata, to assess the distribution and interrelationship between physicians' characteristics, knowledge and practice regarding diarrhoea. A total of 264 randomly selected consenting practitioners were interviewed using a field-tested questionnaire. Nineteen percent had good overall knowledge, 49% and 80% prescribed antibiotics to diarrhoea and cholera patients, respectively, and 55% advised stool examination for every case. Qualified and Government physicians had better knowledge regarding diarrhoea [MBBS: odds ratio (OR) 5 center dot 96, P<0 center dot 001; postgraduates: OR 9 center dot 33, P<0 center dot 001; Government physicians: OR 11 center dot 49, P<0 center dot 0001] and were less likely to prescribe antibiotics for all diarrhoea cases (MBBS: OR 0 center dot 30, P=0 center dot 002; postgraduates: OR 0 center dot 20, P<0 center dot 001; Government physicians OR 0 center dot 24, P<0 center dot 029). Better knowledge was associated with a lower likelihood of prescribing antibiotics for diarrhoea (OR 0 center dot 72, P<0 center dot 001), cholera (OR 0 center dot 78, P=0 center dot 027) and investigative procedure (OR 0 center dot 85, P=0 center dot 028). In the slums of Kolkata, diarrhoea-related knowledge and practice were poor with the exception of qualified physicians, hence an improvement in the knowledge of pharmacists and unqualified practitioners is necessary for the overall improvement of diarrhoeal management in these slums.