Exploring rural households’ knowledge and perception of acute kidney injury in the southern region of The Gambia: a mixed-method community-based cross-sectional study design

BackgroundThe Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) outbreak in The Gambia is a national tragedy attracting international concern, linked to nearly 100 deaths in children. This situation arose due to the use of contaminated medical products by children in the country.MethodWe used a mixed-method, cross-sectional study design to assess households’ knowledge and perceptions of AKI in the southern region of The Gambia. A total of 2174 respondents from 123 rural communities were recruited via multistage sampling and were interviewed face-to-face using a questionnaire. Qualitatively, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted. The collected data were analysed as categorical and continuous variables, and thematic areas using SPSS V.26 and NVivo software.ResultsThe mean age was 36 years (SD±14.17) and 70% of the respondents were women. Most respondents had no formal education (45.6%), lived in extended family households (55%) and 91.6% earned a monthly income of less than GMD5000 (Gambian dalasi) (