Knowledge, attitude, and associated factors towards mental illness among residents of Dessie town, northeast, Ethiopia, a cross-sectional study

Background Knowledge and attitude towards mental illness are poor and neglected as compared to medical illness. However, there is an increasing burden of mental illness in the community. As per the knowledge of the investigators, studies are scarce and not done in the study area about knowledge and attitudes of mental illness. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and associated factors towards mental illness among, Dessie town residents. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Dessie town, Northeast, Ethiopia from October 27 to November 29/2020. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed. The data were collected from 477 study participants using a standard structured questionnaire, which were Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS) and Community Attitude to Mental Illness Inventory (CAMI) respectively. Data were entered using Epi-data version 3.1 and, then exported to SPSS version 26 for analyses. Bivariable and Multivariable logistic regression analyses was employed. Results From 477 study participants the prevalence of poor knowledge and unfavorable attitude towards mental illness were 55.3% (95% CI: 50.9, 60.0) and 45.1% (95% CI: 40.7,49.5) respectively. Being female [AOR = 1.62 (95% CI:1.06,2.47)], could not read and write [AOR = 6.28 (95% CI: 2.56, 15.39)], lack of information about mental illness [AOR = 5.82 (95% CI: 3.78,8.94)] and unfavorable attitude [AOR =1.73 (95% CI: 1.12,2.66)] were variables found statistical significant with poor knowledge. Whereas, income < 2166 [AOR = 1.64, (95% CI: 1.12, 2.41)], poor social support [AOR = 2.04, (95% CI: 1.13, 3.68)], moderate social support [AOR = 2.44, (95% CI: 1.45, 3.97)] and poor knowledge [AOR = 1.66, (95% CI: 1.13,2.43)] were variables significantly associated with unfavorable attitude toward mental illness. Conclusion In this study about half of the community have poor knowledge, and less than half of the participants have an unfavorable attitude to wards mental illness. There are many factors associated with poor knowledge and unfavorable attitudes. This having poor knowledge and unfavorable attitude may cause certain problems like a decrease in health care of a person with mental illness. Therefore, we recommend practice-based awareness in the community regarding mental health problems needs to be addressed.

Knowledge, attitude, and barriers toward polio immunization among pre-clinical students in Malaysia

Background: Polio is reported as reemerging disease in Malaysia after 27 years of being free from it. It is important to identify the awareness towards polio vaccine among the medical students who are the future and the pillars of the nation, to develop a country. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and barriers toward polio immunization among pre-clinical medical students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 190 pre-clinical students from a private university after obtaining informed consent and institutional ethical clearance. Data collected from Google Forms questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: Insufficient knowledge, especially on disease nature, transmission, and correct dosage of vaccine, was noticed. Findings revealed that 79.5% of the students showed unfavorable attitude toward polio immunization. Year 2 students are more positive toward the vaccination compared to year 1. Main barriers toward polio immunization selected by the respondents are disagreement from the spouse, insecure about vaccine safety, and distance of the health center. Conclusion: Pre-clinical students should enhance their knowledge to be able to recognize the various barriers of polio immunization in our country and be part of the effort in solving these barriers as polio eradication is critical to ensuring a healthier future for children.

Farmers’ Attitude towards Custom Hiring Centers: An Exploratory Study in Punjab

Stubble burning is a major threat to environment in trans- gangetic plain region, where there exists bright prospect to reap the benefits of custom hiring centers by leveraging the suitable farm machinery helpful in overcoming the stubble burning issue. Present study was conducted in Punjab state and three districts namely, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Moga were selected purposively due to highest stubble burning cases in last five years. From each district two block were selected randomly. Subsequently, three villages from each block were randomly selected. Finally, from each village 20 respondents were selected randomly constituting of total 360 farmers. Two scales were constructed exclusively for the study in order to measure the attitude of farmers towards custom hiring centres (CHCs) and elicitation of perception regarding stubble burning. Results indicated that majority of the respondents had favorable attitude towards CHCs, followed by 22.78 per cent of respondents having neutral attitude towards CHCs and only 8.89 per cent of respondents has unfavorable attitude towards CHCs. CHCs were not sufficient in number to cater the high demand during the peak seasons. Those machines which are of least demand should be replaced by machines with high demand. Majority of the respondents agreed that crop residue burning has a negative effect on plant health, air, human health, animal health, biodiversity, vehicular traffic and soil health. It was found that less than half (47.23%) of the respondent had high level of perception.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward Cervical Cancer and its Prevention among Reproductive Age Woman

Context: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among Indian women aged 15-44 years. Unfortunately, despite the evidence of methods for prevention, most of the women remain unaware. The studies have shown that women had lack of knowledge regarding risk factors, symptoms and prevention of cervical cancer. This study attempts to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices related to cervical cancer and its prevention among reproductive age woman. Settings and Design: A descriptive Cross sectional study design was adopted for the present study. The study was conducted at selected PHC area, Bangalore. Materials and Methods: The simple random sampling technique was used. Hundred reproductive age women were recruited for study. Structured knowledge questionnaire, Rating scale and checklist were used to assess knowledge, attitude and practice respectively. The study involved females aged 15 to 45 years and the study excluded antenatal mothers, women diagnosed with cervical cancer and women who had undergone hysterectomy. Statistical analysis used: Data were analyzed using Statistical package for the social Sciences software package (Version 23). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the study. Results: The study findings had shown that mean age of respondents was 23±2.56 and majority (60%) of reproductive age group women had Poor knowledge, 23% of the respondents had average knowledge and only17% of them had good knowledge regarding cervical cancer and its prevention. With regard to attitude and practice, majority of respondents had unfavorable attitude (63%) and inadequate practice (76%) regarding cervical cancer and its prevention. Conclusion: The study concludes that women had suboptimal level of knowledge, unfavorable attitude and inadequate practice regarding cervical cancer and its prevention. There is need for mass education and creation of awareness to prevent cervical cancer. The government should plan activities aiming at prevention of

Talk the talk, but walk the walk: what do we know about marital demography and corporate greenwashing?

Using a sample of 21,628 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market during the period of 2008–2017, this study finds that the divorce–marriage ratio, the proxy for marital demography, is significantly positively associated with corporate greenwashing. This finding suggests that higher divorce–marriage ratio is associated with stronger individualistic social atmosphere, lower conformity to social norms, and more unfavorable attitude towards environmental conservation, abets firms to talk the talk rather than walk the walk, and foments corporate greenwashing. Moreover, China's Environmental Protection Law attenuates above positive relation. Lastly, our conclusions are robust to sensitivity tests using the divorce rate, alternative proxies for greenwashing, and individual-level divorce data, and further our findings are also valid after addressing the endogeneity issue.

Awareness and Attitude Regarding Teenage Pregnancy among Adolescent Girls of Chandannath Municipality, Jumla

Background: Teenage pregnancy is a major threat to adolescent health globally which remains a challenging issue requiring urgent resolution over the world. Objectives: To find out to awareness and attitude regarding teenage pregnancy among adolescent girls. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross- sectional design was carried out among 334 adolescent girls of school students of Chandannath Municipality, Jumla. Results: More than half of adolescent girls (68%) had inadequate, 26% had moderate and least 6% had adequate awareness regarding teenage pregnancy. However, majority (58.1%) of adolescent girls had favorable attitude, that they believed teenage pregnancy as wrong while only (34.4%) of them had neutral attitude and least (7.5%) of them had unfavorable attitude which support teenage pregnancy. There was no relation between awareness and attitude regarding teenage pregnancy and types of family, level of education of father and mother. Conclusion: In this study, half of respondents had inadequate awareness regarding teenage pregnancy even though majority of them had favorable attitude regarding teenage pregnancy. There was no significant difference between demographic variables with awareness and attitude regarding teenage pregnancy. The study had highlighted the need for awareness program regarding teenage pregnancy in school as well as in community.

Actitud hacia la investigación científica en estudiantes peruanos de educación superior pedagógica

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo describir las actitudes hacia la investigación científica de los estudiantes de la carrera profesional de Educación de un instituto de educación superior pedagógico de Madre de Dios, Perú. El enfoque de investigación fue cuantitativo, el diseño fue no experimental mientras que el tipo, descriptivo transeccional. Participaron 138 estudiantes a quienes se les aplicó una ficha de datos sociodemográficos y el Índice de Actitud hacia la Investigación, instrumento con la validez y confiabilidad requerida. De acuerdo a los hallazgos, los estudiantes se caracterizaron por tener una actitud poco favorable hacia la investigación científica y se determinó que algunas variables sociodemográficas como el sexo y el grupo etario se asociaron de manera significativa con la actitud hacia la investigación científica (p<0,05). Por último, se concluyó que es necesario fomentar el desarrollo de la didáctica y competencias investigativas de los docentes formadores que enseñan el curso de investigación para que la actitud de los estudiantes hacia dicho curso sea más adecuada. The present research aimed to describe the attitudes towards scientific research of the students of the Education career of a pedagogical higher education institute of Madre de Dios, Peru. The research approach was quantitative, the design was non-experimental while the type was descriptive, transactional. 138 students participated to whom a sociodemographic data sheet and the Index of Attitude towards Research were applied, an instrument with the required validity and reliability. According to the findings, the students were characterized by having an unfavorable attitude towards scientific research and it was determined that some sociodemographic variables such as sex and age group were significantly associated with the attitude towards scientific research (p <0.05). Finally, it was concluded that it is necessary to promote the development of didactics and research competencies of the teacher trainers who teach the research course so that the attitude of the students towards said course is more appropriate.

Attitude of Health Care Workers On COVID 19 Care In a Selected Hospital Setting

Introduction: From the first week of March 2020 till Nov 2020 the attitude of HCWs, mental health or perceptions changing regularly as the COVID-19 pandemic changing its image. New treatment, new information new training and practice changing attitude towards positivity as the death rate reducing and patient recovery rate increasing. Methods: A cross sectional study was done by a Likert type five-point attitude scale by survey method and conveniently selected 120 health care workers from a single setting. Different categories of HCWs were participated namely doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, lab technicians and X-ray technicians. Results: result showed mean age of HCWs were 26.9. Female HCWs are more than male. 80% HCWs attitude is favorable 20% neutral and no one have unfavorable attitude. Chai square test revealed that there is highly significant association of attitude with marital status and residence area, significant with age and year of experience. Conclusion: Generalization is not possible because this is single center data. But research showed maturity and better practice improves attitude. HCWs attitude improve care and recovery rates.

Self-care Practice and Associated Factors Among Hypertensive Follow Up Patients at East Gojam Zone Public Hospitals, North West Ethiopia, 2021

Background: Self-care practice is crucial for the prevention and management of Hypertension. Poorly controlled hypertension leads to cardiovascular complication as well as organ damage. Despite the availability of several effective pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapies, hypertension control remains suboptimal. Self-care practices allow hypertensive patients to have improved quality of life by avoiding complication and decrease health care expenditure. Objective: we assessed self-care practice and its associated factors among Hypertensive Follow up patients at East Gojjam Zone public hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020.Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted by both quantitative and qualitative methods from October 1-30, 2020. Epi data version 3.1 and SPSS version 25.0 were used for data entry and for analysis respectively. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analysis was employed. Adjusted odds ratios were used to ascertain effect sizes for any association between the dependent and associated variables while significance level at p value of 0.05 was determined using 95% confidence intervals. Result: Out of 480 patients included in the study 51% have Poor self-care practices. About 44.6%, 92.5%, 82.8%, 62.5% of respondents were poor adherent to antihypertensive medications, low diet quality, poor practiced to physical activity, poor practice to weight management respectively. Some of the respondents 3.3%, 9.8% were smokers and were alcohol drinkers respectively. Educational status who cannot read and write (AOR=3.153, 95% CI: 1.674-5.939), no co morbidity (AOR = 0.418, 95% CI: 0.263-0.663), uncontrolled blood pressure status (AOR = 2.141, 95% CI: 1.271- 3.609), poor social support status (AOR = 2.587, 95% CI: 1.544-4.334) and unfavorable attitude (AOR= 3.193, 95% CI: 1.951-5.225) showed significant statistical association with poor self-care practice.Conclusion: The level of hypertension self-care practices found to be low. Therefore, education towards hypertension self-care practices should be strengthened for patients living with hypertension. Special attention should be given to patients with low educational level that cannot read and write, patients with co morbidity, uncontrolled state of hypertension, poor social support and those with unfavorable attitude towards hypertension management modalities.

Nurse’s Attitude Towards Palliative Care and Associated Factors in Ethiopia: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: Palliative care significantly improves the distressing symptoms of patients, especially those with cancer, heart disease, renal disease, and liver disease, and its need is increasing worldwide due to the growing burden of chronic disease. Nurses with an unfavorable attitude towards palliative care cannot skilfully assess the patient's needs, effective communication, and adequately address the patient's problems. Thus, this study was amid to assess the nurse’s level of attitude towards palliative care in Ethiopia.Method: PubMed/MEDLINE, HINARI, EMBASE, Scopus, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online (AJOL) were the databases used to search for articles. Cochrane I2 statistics and Eggers test was done to check heterogeneity and publication bias, respectively. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were also done to detect the source of heterogeneity and an influential study, respectively. Result: The pooled prevalence of nurse’s attitudes towards palliative care was 67.15% (95% CI: 54.75-79.54. Palliative care training was a significantly associated factor with the level of nurse’s attitude towards palliative care. Accordingly, nurses who have taken palliative care training (AOR=2.53; 95% CI; 1.88-3.40) was found a significantly associated factor with the level of nurse’s attitude towards palliative care.Conclusion: More than half of the nurses had a favorable attitude towards palliative care. Palliative care training was a significantly associated factor with the nurse’s level of attitude towards palliative care. Thus, palliative care training and improving nurse’s careers through continuous professional development should be given regularly for nurses to improve their knowledge about palliative care.