A quantitative analysis of the socio-economic determinants of health seeking behaviour related to bancroftian filariasis and its impact on elimination: a case-control study in Pondicherry, India

Aim Knowledge, belief, attitude and values shape the health behaviour and all these can help in deciding whether to behave in one way or the other. Therefore, the underlying relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding causation, prevention and treatment of filarial disease is studied separately for affected and normal individuals. Methods KAP aspects of the disease were measured using a structured questionnaire and methods were designed to quantify all the variables for which data were collected. A salient feature of the method is the judicious assignment of scores to individual items and summing the scores across items for appropriate standardization. Results Multiple regression analyses indicate that the knowledge on disease treatment, mode of transmission, prevention and income explain about 29% of variation that occurs in knowledge on mosquito breeding and control. Standard of living, knowledge on disease transmission and knowledge on mosquito breeding and control explain 23% of variation in practice measures against mosquito biting. Knowledge gained on disease treatment, prevention, diagnosis and knowledge on mosquito breeding and control is greatly improving the prevention practices against mosquito breeding and control. Interpretation The results reveal that through imparting health education on disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, awareness about mosquito breeding and control can be achieved.