Assessment of the level of information on leprosy by community health workers

Objective: To assess the level of information of Community Health Workers (CHW) regarding leprosy and aspects such as diagnosis, cure, treatment and transmission. Methods: This is a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were collected using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions divided into topics about the disease - general aspects (block 1), diagnosis (block 2), transmission (block 3) and treatment (block 4) of leprosy - applied to 43 CHWs from Cocal, Piauí from January to March 2016. Participants had to choose between the response options: yeas, no or do not know. Results: the level of knowledge was “good” in block 3, “regular” in blocks 1 and 4 and “poor” in block 2. Considering the general overview, CHWs knowledge was considered fair. Conclusion: The results obtained in this study showed a performance below expectations for CHWs regarding the main aspects of leprosy, pointing out that more attention should be given to the continuing health education of this professional.