COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN TERMS OF AWARENESS AND PRACTICES REGARDING MOSQUITO BORNE DISEASE CONTROL: COMPARATIVE STUDY IN RURAL AND URBAN SLUM FIELD PRACTICE AREA OF A MEDICAL COLLEGE

Abstract

Background: In spite of various strategies followed by government of India since 1953 Mosquito Borne Diseases (MBDs) are a health threatening condition all over country and problem is worsening with increasing urban slum. Impact of any strategy depends upon understanding by community members so present study was carried out to find any difference in awareness and practicing mosquito control measures in urban slum and rural field practice area of medical college.

Material and methods: A cross sectional study was carried out for duration of 6months (June to Nov 2017-most important transmission season of vector borne diseases) infield practice area (UHTC&RHTC) of community medicine department with sample size of 540.One adult respondent from each selected households were selected randomly and interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS 20 and results were expressed in terms of frequency and percent.

Results: About 78.9% urban slum and 70.7% rural respondents had heard about mosquito borne diseases, 70% urban slum respondents and 83.3% rural respondents knew correct mode of transmission of diseases. Nearly three fourth (75%) of households in urban slum and more than 90% (94.5%) in rural were practicing one or more efficient larvae control measures but they were not specific to mosquito control.

Conclusion: Awareness regarding mosquito borne diseases and control measures was satisfactory to some extent. Community participation in terms of practices is varied at studied places & needs to be addressed as per deficiency to reduce disease burden.