Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding tuberculosis among nursing students in a coastal district of Karnataka.

INTRODUCTION

India has the highest burden of Tuberculosis (TB) in the world. Delay in diagnosis and treatment is one of the main reasons for high burden of TB in India. Proper knowledge, attitude and practice regarding Tuberculosis among health care workers is essential to improve case finding and treatment in TB. Nursing students are the prospective healthcare providers in the fight against tuberculosis.

AIM: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding tuberculosis among nursing students.

METHODS

This was a Cross-sectional, analytical type of study done on 313 nursing students after taking Institutional Ethical committee clearance. It was done using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire, on selected nursing colleges in Mangalore city of Karnataka state. Analysis of data was done using the software "IBM SPSS Statistics". Chi-square test was used to test association. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Only 24.9% of the respondents had good knowledge and 58.8% had moderate knowledge about tuberculosis. Students studying B.Sc. nursing knew more about tuberculosis than those studying General Nursing. 67.4% of students had good attitude towards tuberculosis. Practice towards various aspects of tuberculosis was not satisfactory in more than 50% of the students.

CONCLUSION

Most of the nursing students have moderate knowledge about tuberculosis, but their attitude and practice towards TB is not at satisfactory level. Hence specific training measures should be included in their curriculum to improve their knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding tuberculosis. This will help in early diagnosis and proper treatment of TB.