Albitar Lina, Almasri Imad Addin
Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Arab International University, Damascus, Syria.
Department of Applied Statistics, Faculty of Economics, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria.
Heliyon. 2023 Jul 14;9(7):e18278. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18278. eCollection 2023 Jul.
Cholera is an acute bacterial disease caused by intestinal infection with . It is one of the major re-emerging communicable diseases in Syria following the Syrian crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. The current study was undertaken to explore the level of awareness in a cohort of the Syrian population by testing their knowledge and investigating their attitudes and practices. An internet-based survey that queried knowledge of cholera transmission, prevention, risk factors, and treatment was designed. Of particular interest was revealing sources of information associated with higher knowledge. Furthermore, individual attitudes and practices towards the disease were collected and analyzed. Participants were 1521, mostly females (68.3%), 18-25 years old (56.4%), single (72.7%), and college degree holders (75.9%). The main sources of information on cholera were school/college (31.7%), social media (28.7%), family and friends (13.2%), and online search engines (11.3%). The average total knowledge of the cohort was 40.39%. The participants >40 years old, highly educated, living in urban areas, and females demonstrated higher knowledge of cholera. Schools/colleges and online search engines were associated with better knowledge. Most of the cohort showed serious attitudes and considered cholera a very dangerous disease. They were very concerned about cholera resurfacing in the country and were worried about getting infected. The majority of the cohort were leading their lives favorably by eating out/takeaway <5 times a month; however, their practices regarding handling raw produce were suboptimal. Succeeding cholera re-emergence, females, highly educated, and >40 years old participants were more committed to changing practices and taking stricter safety measures. As cholera imposes a health threat not only to Syrians but to the people of the whole Middle East, preventive strategies were suggested, mainly raising awareness with more focused media means and vaccination of people at high risk in the affected areas of the governorates.
霍乱是一种由肠道感染 引起的急性细菌性疾病。它是叙利亚危机和新冠疫情后该国主要的重新出现的传染病之一。本研究旨在通过测试叙利亚人群的知识、调查他们的态度和行为来探索该人群的认知水平。设计了一项基于互联网的调查，询问霍乱传播、预防、风险因素和治疗方面的知识。特别感兴趣的是揭示与较高知识水平相关的信息来源。此外，还收集并分析了个人对该疾病的态度和行为。参与者有1521人，大多为女性（68.3%），年龄在18至25岁之间（56.4%），单身（72.7%），拥有大学学位（75.9%）。霍乱信息的主要来源是学校/学院（31.7%）、社交媒体（28.7%）、家人和朋友（13.2%）以及在线搜索引擎（11.3%）。该人群的平均总知识得分是40.39%。40岁以上、受过高等教育、居住在城市地区的参与者以及女性对霍乱的了解更多。学校/学院和在线搜索引擎与更好的知识水平相关。该人群中的大多数人态度认真，认为霍乱是一种非常危险的疾病。他们非常担心霍乱在该国再次出现，担心自己被感染。该人群中的大多数人每月外出就餐/叫外卖次数少于5次，生活方式良好；然而，他们处理生鲜食品的行为并不理想。在霍乱再次出现后，女性、受过高等教育以及40岁以上的参与者更致力于改变行为并采取更严格的安全措施。由于霍乱不仅对叙利亚人，而且对整个中东地区的人民都构成健康威胁，因此提出了预防策略，主要是通过更有针对性的媒体手段提高认识，并对各省受影响地区的高危人群进行疫苗接种。
