An Educational Interventional Study to Assess Awareness about Mosquito Breeding, Diseases Caused and Protective Measures Against them among Families Residing in an Urban Slum of Indore City

Abstract

Background: Community participation plays an important role in control of Mosquito borne diseases. This study tries to assess impact of educational intervention on various aspects of mosquito borne diseases in an urban slum. Methodology: An educational interventional study was done in 200 families residing in a slum (Badi Gwaltoli) which is in field practice area of Urban Health Centre attached to Department of Community Medicine of M.G.M.Medical College, Indore. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the Head of the family which studied their awareness and perception regarding breeding sites and biting habits of mosquitoes, diseases spread by them and personal protective measures used, followed by an educational intervention and post assessment. Data was entered into Microsoft excel spread sheet and analysed using SPSS version 20 software. Results: 46% of study population knew the correct breeding season of mosquitoes (monsoon season) during pre-intervention and 68% of the population post- intervention (p- value 0.004). When asked at what time mosquitoes bite the most, maximum number (92%) of people said that mosquitoes bite most in the evening and night, while only 6% and 2% were for morning and noon, respectively. Only 3.5% of the population who knew about breeding sites knew about artificial collections of water. Majority said mosquito breed in dirty stagnant water (78.5%). About 96%of the study population was aware that mosquitoes spread diseases. However, only 33.3%of respondents knew correctly about the diseases spread which improved to 68% in the post-intervention period (p-value=.000). 46% knew all the protection measures against mosquitoes in the pre-intervention which increased to 86% in the post intervention (p.value-.005). Conclusion: Awareness about Aedes mosquitoes and its habits is quite poor and many people still believe that only dirty water serves as a breeding place in mosquitoes. Regular IEC sessions informing community about mosquito-borne diseases will improve community participation.