A cross-sectional survey on the effectiveness of public health campaigns for changing knowledge, attitudes, and practices in Kenyan informal settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Autor: Scholfield S; Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom., Kavembe GD; Department of Life Sciences, South Eastern Kenya University, Kitui, Kenya., Duncan RR; Department of Monitoring and Evaluation, Central Kenya Conference of SDA, Nairobi, Kenya., Ragama BO; Centre for Research and Therapeutic Sciences, Strathmore University and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi, Kenya., Mecha J; Department of Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya., Orwa A; Department of Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya., Otomu G; Department of Medicine, Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kisii, Kenya., Wanga E; Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Nairobi, Kenya., Astleford J; Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Nairobi, Kenya., Gutto J; Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom., Kibwage I; Egerton University, Nairobi, Kenya., Ogato J; Division of Health Systems Strengthening, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya., Verma A; Division of Population Sciences, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom., Brennan K; Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom., Huck J; MCGIS, Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom., Mitlin D; Global Development Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom., Nirmalan M; Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2023 Dec 22; Vol. 18 (12), pp. e0294202. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Dec 22 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294202
Abstrakt: We performed two cross-sectional surveys across three informal settlements in Kenya (within Kisii county, Nairobi, and Nakuru county) to study the effectiveness of public health interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 720 participants were surveyed from 120 randomly selected geographical locations (240 participants/settlement/survey), and a coordinated health promotion campaign was delivered between the two surveys by trained staff. Information relating to knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) were collected by trained field workers using a validated questionnaire. The main outcomes showed improvements in: (i) mask-wearing (% of participants 'Always' using their mask increased from 71 to 74%, and the percentage using their masks 'Sometimes' decreased from 15% to 6%; p<0.001); (ii) practices related to face mask usage (% of subjects covering the mouth and nose increased from 91 to 95%, and those covering only part of their face decreased from around 2.5% to <1%; p<0.001). Significant improvements were also seen in the attitudes and expectations relating to mask wearing, and in the understanding of government directives. Over 50% of subjects in the post-campaign survey reported that social distancing was not possible in their communities and fears associated with COVID-19 testing were resistant to change (unchanged at 10%). Access to COVID-19 testing facilities was limited, leaving a large proportion of people unable to test. As willingness to take a COVID-19 test did not change between surveys (69 vs 70%; p = 0.57), despite increased availability, we recommend that policy level interventions are needed, aimed at mitigating adverse consequences of a positive test. Improvements of KAPs in the more crowded urban environment (Nairobi) were less than at settlements in rural or semi-urban settings (Nakuru and Kisii). We conclude that coordinated public health campaigns are effective in facilitating the change of KAPs amongst people living amidst challenging socio-economic conditions in informal settlements.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Scholfield et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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