Brief Reports Knowledge and Attitude of Nigerian Physiotherapy Students about Leprosy

Knowledge and attitude about leprosy was evaluated in a sample of 63 volunteer physiotherapy students, from various Nigerian universities using a three-part questionnaire. Attitude scores averaged 54.6±21.0 ranging from 0 to 77.8. Eighty-one percent of the students showed poor attitude, 13% showed fair attitude while only 6% showed good attitude. Knowledge scores averaged 41.0±18.6, ranging from 6.3 to 93.8. Twenty-four percent demonstrated poor knowledge, 44% had fair knowledge while 32% demonstrated good knowledge. Relationship between attitude and knowledge was not significant (r=0.2;P=0.07). Relationship between level of study and knowledge was significant (r=0.6; P=0.00). Relationship between level of study and attitude was not significant (r=0.1;P=0.4). In conclusion, the students have fairly good knowledge but poor attitude about leprosy. There is a need for a well-organised, specifically targeted educational programme for physiotherapy trainees. It is desirable that they spend time in a leprosy setting during their clinical attachment. INTRODUCTION Leprosy is still one of the major health problems of developing countries. Nigeria ranks among the six countries with the highest number of leprosy cases (1). Leprosy is a disease associated with a lot of stigma. The stigma against leprosy seems to be related to the fact that leprosy deforms and disables, but seldom kills, so that those who have been crippled, live on, getting steadily worse, with their deformities visible to the whole community (2). Age, gender, educational level and religion have been found to play a significant role in the beliefs with respect to leprosy (2). A study in Tanzania, showed that Stigmatising attitudes and belief were associated with low level of education, female gender and rural residence and religion (3). Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal 86 Vol. 16 No. 1 2005 Many studies have been carried out concerning knowledge and attitude of health workers towards leprosy. A study in north-western Botswana, found that attitude of service providers towards leprosy was influenced by poor knowledge (4). In a study in Nigeria, about two thirds (65%) of final year nursing students, believed that leprosy was highly infectious and that deformities were inevitable in leprosy (5). It has been shown that training basic health workers on leprosy control programme improved their knowledge, attitude and service delivery (6). An Indian study of 118 secondary school children showed an improvement in knowledge following leprosy education, without any change in attitude towards leprosy (7). This study also showed that these children were able to improve the knowledge of their family members modestly. However family members’ attitude towards leprosy was unaffected. Physiotherapy plays a major role in the management of deformities and disabilities occurring in leprosy (8). Though some studies have examined the attitudes of physiotherapy students about Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (9,10), there is a dearth of such studies on leprosy and physiotherapy students, especially in Nigeria. The National Leprosy Control Programme in Nigeria, specifies at least one physiotherapist in every State control programme (1). It is disheartening to note that over 90% of the State control programmes do not have a physiotherapist. The inability of physiotherapists to take up positions in leprosy programmes may be related to their knowledge and attitude about leprosy. There is therefore need to assess the level of knowledge and attitude of prospective physiotherapy practitioners, about leprosy and their willingness to work in leprosy hospitals. This study was therefore, designed to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of Nigerian physiotherapy students concerning leprosy. METHODOLOGY Subjects Subjects for this study consisted of 63 volunteer physiotherapy students from various Nigerian universities, who participated in a one-week scientific conference organised by the Nigerian Association of Physiotherapy Students (NAPS). Only students who were in the clinical part of their programme, were surveyed. All students in the pre-clinical years of the physiotherapy programme were excluded from the study. The Students’ sociodemographic data is presented in Table 1.