Knowledge, attitude, practice and associated factors of health professionals towards podoconiosis in Gamo zone, Ethiopia, 2019

Healthcare Practitioners' Knowledge of Lymphedema

Objectives

Lymphedema is neglected in medical education, and a review on healthcare practitioners' (HCPs) knowledge is necessary to shed light on gaps and to provide evidence for establishing educational programs on lymphedema.

Methods

This systematic review was performed based on the PRISMA guideline in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. There was no limitation on the type of lymphedema or HCPs. The quality assessment was performed based on QATSDD. Data regarding study characteristics, questionnaire context, and findings of the study were summarized from each article.

Results

After the screening, 16 articles were included that 12 were cross-sectional, two were qualitative, and two were interventional pilot studies. Breast cancer and other cancer-related lymphedema, lymphatic filariasis, and podoconiosis were included, and the majority of articles were focused on primary HCPs. The overall knowledge was low and average in five and 11 articles, respectively, and prior education was a significant factor related to higher knowledge of lymphedema in two studies.

Conclusion

Structured education of lymphedema is needed to increase the knowledge of HCPs and to enhance their collaboration in multidisciplinary care teams. Improvement of HCPs' knowledge may lead to better outcomes of lymphedema patients' management which are neglected.

Regulation of medicines advertisement in Zimbabwe: an assessment of the impact of pharmaceutical promotion on the prescribing behaviour of healthcare professionals

BACKGROUND

The pharmaceutical industry plays a key role in drug discovery and is considered useful regards to informing the health care workers health care workers about new medicines. Investigations concerning health care workers to industry interactions are less common. The objective of this study is to determine levels of knowledge, attitude and perception towards regulation of pharmaceutical promotion among healthcare practitioners in Zimbabwe.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was used and 330 healthcare practitioners were enrolled into the study. Data collection was done through combined face-to-face interviews and web-based online survey. The relative importance index score and used as a measure of knowledge, attitude and perception levels towards pharmaceutical promotion. Univariate and bivariate analysis was performed using STATA software package.

RESULTS

Our study estimated that 95%, 67%, and 90% of the healthcare practitioners in Zimbabwe have a favourable (i.e. > 65%) relative importance index score of knowledge, attitudes, and perception, respectively, towards regulation of pharmaceutical promotion. Further exploration of the data indicated that the factors that had an association with the knowledge, attitude and perception levels towards regulation of pharmaceutical regulation at 5% level of significance include health care workers' profession, gender, education level, the nature of the working institution and the number of prescriptions involved per week.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the findings of this study highlighted that in general the health care workers in Zimbabwe have higher levels of knowledge, attitude and perception towards regulation of pharmaceutical promotion, though the attitudes levels weres a  bit lower compared to other domains.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health professionals towards people living with lymphoedema caused by lymphatic filariasis, podoconiosis and leprosy in northern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Podoconiosis, lymphatic filariasis and leprosy are highly stigmatised neglected tropical diseases that cause lymphoedema. Their enormous impacts on health-related quality of life, mental health and economic productivity can be significantly reduced by morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) services, but to deliver such services requires appropriate training of healthcare professionals. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of rural Ethiopian healthcare professionals towards people with lymphoedema as a way to assess training needs.

METHODS

This study used questionnaires to quantitatively assess KAP towards people with lymphoedema among rural healthcare professionals in northwest Ethiopia before and 12 months after a short training intervention.

RESULTS

Questionnaires were administered to 14 health professionals at baseline and 21 at follow-up. At baseline, 71% (10/14) were found to hold at least one stigmatising attitude towards lymphoedema patients, compared with 66% (14/21) at follow-up. Large gaps in knowledge were noted, with many unable to identify ways of treating/preventing the diseases.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed high proportions of healthcare workers holding stigmatising views and lacking essential knowledge about lymphoedema. To maximise the impact of MMDP interventions, further research is urgently needed to understand how to address these issues.