Director General's office, Rwanda Biomedical Center, Kigali, Rwanda.
Department of Community Health and Social Medicine, University of Global Equity, Kigali, Rwanda.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2023 Aug 8;17(8):e0010759. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010759. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Worm infections are among the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases worldwide. Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths infections, most common worm infections affecting Rwandan school-aged children, are addressed by the national deworming program since 2014. To date, no published studies have assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the key implementers of the national deworming program conducted at village and school level in Rwanda. This study aimed to assess key stakeholders' knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perspectives about the decentralized national deworming program.
METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We carried out a quantitative, cross-sectional study with complementary in-depth interviews in two districts of Rwanda in June 2021. From the 852 surveyed community health workers and teachers, 54.1% had a knowledge score considered good (≥80%). The mean knowledge score was 78.04%. From the multivariate analysis, lack of training was shown to increase the odds of having poor knowledge (OR 0.487, 95% CI: 0.328-0.722, p <0.001). The in-depths interviews revealed poor water access and hesitance from caregivers as perceived challenges to the success of the deworming program.
Our findings demonstrate the importance of training community health workers and schoolteachers on worm infections as they are the key implementers of the deworming program. This would enhance their capacity to provide health education and sensitization on misconceptions and misinformation towards deworming. Moreover, research is needed to assess the impact of poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities on the prevalence of worm infections in Rwanda.
蠕虫感染是全球最普遍的被忽视热带病之一。血吸虫病和土壤传播性蠕虫感染是最常见的影响卢旺达学龄儿童的蠕虫感染，自 2014 年以来，国家驱虫方案一直在解决这些问题。迄今为止，尚无已发表的研究评估过在卢旺达村庄和学校一级开展国家驱虫方案的关键执行者的知识、态度和实践。本研究旨在评估利益攸关方对分散式国家驱虫方案的知识、态度、实践和看法。
方法/主要发现：我们于 2021 年 6 月在卢旺达的两个地区开展了一项定量、横断面研究，并辅以深入访谈。在所调查的 852 名社区卫生工作者和教师中，有 54.1%的人知识得分被认为较好（≥80%）。平均知识得分为 78.04%。从多变量分析来看，缺乏培训被表明会增加知识水平较差的可能性（OR 0.487，95%CI：0.328-0.722，p<0.001）。深入访谈揭示了较差的供水条件和看护者的犹豫，这被认为是驱虫方案成功的挑战。
我们的研究结果表明，对社区卫生工作者和学校教师进行蠕虫感染培训非常重要，因为他们是驱虫方案的主要执行者。这将提高他们提供卫生教育和提高对驱虫的误解和错误信息的认识的能力。此外，需要研究评估获取水、卫生和个人卫生设施的情况不佳对卢旺达蠕虫感染流行率的影响。
