Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of traditional first aid as prehospital management of snakebite among the coastal rural population of Kumira Union, Chattogram.

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Kumira of Chattogram district, one of the unions of Sitakunda upazilla to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice and perception about snakes and the first aid management of snake bite where 120 interviews of respondents were included. A combination of convenient and purposive sampling was applied to recruit subjects for the study .We employed Chi-square test to analyze the association between demographic characteristics and the degree of knowledge, attitude, practice, and perception. The mean knowledge score was 6.5 (SD=1.7). Regarding first aid knowledge, 57.50% of the respondents had adequate knowledge while 42.50% were regarded to have poor knowledge. The majority of the participants in this study (55%) had negative attitudes to the first-aid treatment of snake bites (45%). 47% of responders followed good practices for pre-hospital care of a snake bite. 56.7% of respondents believed in snake superstitions. With the exception of religion, which was not statistically significant, the study found a correlation between some other demographic factors and the population's level of knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions of snakes as well as first aid techniques for snake bites. However, poor perception and low knowledge were not statistically substantially correlated with gender, although poor practice and negative attitudes were. Women performed worse than males in attitude and practice. The least knowledgeable groups were housewives (69.2%), moreover, all illiterates had poor perception .The older population showed greater levels of inadequate knowledge, a negative attitude, bad behavior, and poor perception as compared to the younger group. Negative behavior was not connected to education level; on the other hand, poor perception was strongly related. Negative attitudes were present in 86.21% of farmers, fishermen, and 65.3% of housewives. All the housewives had poor perception. The study's findings revealed that although the study population, had a basic understanding of snakes and snake bites, their practices and attitudes toward pre-hospital care were not sufficient. The study also discovered that people's adherence to superstitions and beliefs might cause them to kill snakes, seek out an ojha or snake charmer after being bitten by a snake, and postpone seeking the required medical attention.