Knowledge, Awareness and Practices regarding Dengue among Rural and Slum Communities in North Indian City, India

Background: Dengue fevers (DF), transmitted by Aedes aegypti, is an arboviral disease endemic in the Asian subcontinent. It has emerged as a notable public health problem in recent decades. Rapid urbanization, environmental changes and neglected (rural and slums) areas results in vector breeding causes rise in dengue outbreaks. Aims & Objective: To study the knowledge, awareness and practices regarding dengue among rural and slum communities in Chandigarh City. Materials and Methods: This community based cross sectional study was conducted in Chandigarh city, India during June-July 2011 among 800 respondents.The sample area was the two rural (villages) and two slums of the city. Each 200 respondents from each village and slum area. The aim was to assess the knowledge and awareness, preventive measures and most prevalent source of information regarding dengue. Simple random sampling method was used for interview by using structural questionnaire. Results: Results showed that knowledge and awareness about dengue fever was generally inadequate. It was more in rural (48.5%) as compared to slum (30%). Only 72.62% of the respondents answered that mosquito was responsible for the transmission of dengue. They had insufficient knowledge that dengue mosquito bites at day time and breeds in clean water. 70.87% don’t know the dengue symptoms. Most prevalent preventive method was coils, liquid vaporizers. Health professional and television /radio were the important source of information for dengue. Conclusion: There is a need to make villages and slum people aware of different preventive practices and reduce this knowledge application gap. Thus, understanding people perception and practices could help in identifying the targets areas to control outbreaks.