Concerns about the knowledge and attitude of multidrug‑resistant tuberculosis among health care workers and patients in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Inadequate knowledge and wrong perception of multidrug‑resistant tuberculosis (MDR‑TB) by Health Care Workers (HCWs) and patients are detrimental to tuberculosis control programs.
Objective: The aim was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of HCWs and TB patients about MDR‑TB in Delta State, Nigeria.
Materials and Methods: A cross‑sectional study was carried out among HCWs and TB patients in Delta State, Nigeria. Data were collected using a structured interviewer‑administered questionnaire and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.
Results: Ninety‑six HCWs and 114 TB patients were studied. The HCWs (mean age 43.0 ± 10.1 years) were older than the patients (mean age 41.7 ± 16.9 years). A higher proportion (54.2%) of HCWs had tertiary education, but only 15% of the patients had above secondary education. Eight (8.3%) HCWs and majority (60.5%) of the patients had no knowledge about of MDR‑TB. Only 18.4% of patients compared to 61.5% of HCWs had good knowledge of MDR‑TB. Both groups demonstrated a positive attitude toward MDR‑TB.
Conclusion: The knowledge of MDR‑TB was poor among the TB patients studied as well as among HCWs with low educational status. MDR‑TB training program for both HCWs and patients need to be re‑structured to allow for greater gain in MDR‑TB knowledge among both groups, which in turn may help improve compliance and treatment outcomes among patients.

Key words: Health care workers, multidrug resistant tuberculosis, Nigeria, tuberculosis patients