I am a public health professional focusing in health promotion education and behavioural sciences and currently an Asst. Professor of Pokhara University. My interest areas are adolescents, physical activity, nutrition, health service delivery, behavioural and community change.
ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, an... more ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, and is also key to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health equity. The Government of Nepal launched SHIP in the Fiscal Year 2015/16 for the first phase in three districts, on the principle of financial risk protection through prepayment and risk pooling in health care. Furthermore, the adoption of the program depends on the stakeholders' behaviors, mainly, the beneficiaries and the providers. Therefore, we aimed to explore and assess their perception and experiences regarding various factors acting on SHIP enrollment and adherence.MethodsA cross-sectional, facility-based, concurrent mixed-methods study was carried out in seven health facilities in the Kailali, Baglung, and Ilam districts of Nepal. A total of 822 beneficiaries, sampled using probability proportional to size (PPS), attending health care institutions, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire for quantitative d...
Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 2016
Background: Majority of neonatal and maternal mortalities occur in developing countries. Moreover... more Background: Majority of neonatal and maternal mortalities occur in developing countries. Moreover, around half of both mortalities occur in immediate postnatal period. Postnatal care utilization is aimed to reduce both mortalities and promote their health status.Methods: We searched PubMed, Google Scholar and HINARI between Jan 1, 2006 and Apr 31, 2014. Cross-sectional studies, surveys published in English language with finding of percentage of and factors affecting postnatal care utilization were included in the analysis. Weighted percentage with 95% CI was calculated to summarize the proportion. Odds ratio of minimum and maximum value was used to summarize associated factors. P-value <0.01 was taken as cut-off for significance of associated factors.Results: Of 45 accessed and reviewed full-text articles, nine included in the review. The studies were conducted in seven countries and total postnatal mothers in all samples were 49385. The weighted percentage of postnatal service u...
Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in dr... more Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in drinking water sources of open defaecation free (ODF) village development committees (VDCs) of Kaski district; to compare distribution of Total coliform (TC) and Faecal count (FC) among various water sources. Study Design: Cross-sectional Study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Health and Allied Sciences, Pokhara University, December 2013 to March, 2014. Methodology: The study was conducted to detect and enumerate indicator organisms in ODF Original Research Article Pant et al.; BMRJ, 7(2): 81-92, 2015; Article no.BMRJ.2015.098 82 VDCs of Kaski district, Nepal. 44 water samples were collected from reservoir / distribution tank, tapstand and spring. The bacteriological water quality was analyzed by using membrane filter method to detect the presence and its risk level of fecal contamination to human health in study area. The study mainly focuses on two part of the study; laboratory analysis for water samples and questionnaire survey. Total water samples collected were 44, out of which 32 were from tap, 3 from reservoir tank and 9 from spring. Chlorine disinfection treatment was not done in any VDCs. Results: All the drinking water samples from Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDCs (100%) were found to be fecally contaminated and the number of total coliforms and fecal coliform per 100ml water were above WHO guidelines for drinking water. None of the water sources from both the VDCs were potable for drinking. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare mean range between samples of two VDCs and mean rank of total coliforms of Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDC were found to be 29.18 and 13.17 and that of Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDCs were found to be 29.80 and 12.89 respectively. Tap water, reservoir/distribution tank and spring water were analyzed to detect indicator organisms and Kruskal Wallis test suggest no significant difference in fecal contamination level among various sources of water was found (p>0.05). The median concentration of fecal coliform of gravity water (spring) in Bharatpokhari was found to be 95 CFU/100 ml and that of Kalika is 40 CFU/100 ml. E. coli was detected in every water samples of both the VDCs. Conclusion: The water bodies used for drinking purpose in Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDC are heavily contaminated with total and fecal coliform bacteria even though those VDCs have been declared ODF. The water bodies used for drinking purpose in Bharatpokhari is found to be more contaminated than Kalika VDC. The distribution of total coliforms and fecal coliforms are same across categories of source of sample. E. coli was isolated from every water sample under study.
Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences, 2014
INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2nd class health workforce o... more INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2nd class health workforce of Nepal. Syndromic Sexually Transmitted Infection Case Management/Reproductive Health (SSCM/RH) training for AHWs is designed to develop knowledge, attitude and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the training in knowledge and practice of AHWs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Achham district from where all AHWs were purposively selected for cross-sectional study. Total number of trained AHWs was 35 and untrained was 19, who were interviewed to fulfill the structured pretested questionnaire that included knowledge inventory and self reported practice.The data collected from29th May to 25th July, 2005. Written consent was taken from respondents after permission taken from Achham DHO. Statistical tests used were mean, median, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rho and chi-square. Values with p < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS : All AHWs were male, w...
Introduction: Adolescence is a stage of human life linked with gradual changes and rapid developm... more Introduction: Adolescence is a stage of human life linked with gradual changes and rapid development. A good nutrition plays important in maintaining good health. Body image dissatisfaction affects the food habit and nutrition of the adolescent especially girls as they are concerned about their body image. Objective: To find out the relationship between nutritional status and body image dissatisfaction among adolescent girls. Methods: A Cross sectional study was carried out in Kaski district, Nepal from October 2013 to January 2014 among 240 female adolescent students of 11-19 years of age selected randomly from 8 schools of grade six to twelve using multistage simple random sampling technique. Structured self administered questionnaire, anthropometric assessment and figure rating scale were used. Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Software for Social Sciences Version 16. Results: Few (4.6%) of the adolescents girls were classified as underweight, 80.4 percent were norm...
ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, an... more ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, and is also key to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health equity. The Government of Nepal launched SHIP in the Fiscal Year 2015/16 for the first phase in three districts, on the principle of financial risk protection through prepayment and risk pooling in health care. Furthermore, the adoption of the program depends on the stakeholders' behaviors, mainly, the beneficiaries and the providers. Therefore, we aimed to explore and assess their perception and experiences regarding various factors acting on SHIP enrollment and adherence.MethodsA cross-sectional, facility-based, concurrent mixed-methods study was carried out in seven health facilities in the Kailali, Baglung, and Ilam districts of Nepal. A total of 822 beneficiaries, sampled using probability proportional to size (PPS), attending health care institutions, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire for quantitative d...
Introduction: Globally, tobacco kills more than seven million people per year. In Nepal, more tha... more Introduction: Globally, tobacco kills more than seven million people per year. In Nepal, more than fifty different types of tobacco products, both in smoke and smokeless forms, are available. Pictorial health warning labels (PHWLs) on tobacco products provide an effective way to aware both literates and illiterates about the health effects of tobacco use. This study aimed to assess the perceived effectiveness of pictorial health warning labels of tobacco products and associated factors among smokers and quitters. Methods: The study design was community-based cross-sectional analytical with the quantitative method. We interviewed 389 adults (111 Quitters and 278 Smokers) of Kaski district. The sample was taken from both rural and urban areas based on existing household proportion. Ethical approval was taken from NHRC. We entered data in EpiData and analyzed in SPSS softwares. The perceived effectiveness scores of PHWLs were calculated (alpha ranges from 0.91 to 0.96) and compared amo...
Background: In general, skills are abilities that enable people to carry out specific behaviours ... more Background: In general, skills are abilities that enable people to carry out specific behaviours and are the abilities to perform a specific work and fundamental to adopt a new behavior. Skills are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. From the literature, it is evident that skills have also stages. There are six pairs of generic life skills and one of the pairs is self awareness and empathy skills (SAES). It includes two skills; self-awareness and empathy. Self-awareness is the perception and understanding of feeling, idea, emotion and control of emotion. Empathy is the ability to understand others’ feelings. As from literature, skills have their stages; this study aims to find out the stages of SAES and relationship of the stages with likely depression. Mental, neurological and substance use disorders exact a high toll on health outcomes, accounting for 13% of the total global burden of disease. Depression alone accounts for 4.3% of the global burden of disease and is among the la...
Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in dr... more Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in drinking water sources of open defaecation free (ODF) village development committees (VDCs) of Kaski district; to compare distribution of Total coliform (TC) and Faecal count (FC) among various water sources. Study Design: Cross-sectional Study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Health and Allied Sciences, Pokhara University, December 2013 to March, 2014. Methodology: The study was conducted to detect and enumerate indicator organisms in ODF Original Research Article Pant et al.; BMRJ, 7(2): 81-92, 2015; Article no.BMRJ.2015.098 82 VDCs of Kaski district, Nepal. 44 water samples were collected from reservoir / distribution tank, tapstand and spring. The bacteriological water quality was analyzed by using membrane filter method to detect the presence and its risk level of fecal contamination to human health in study area. The study mainly focus...
INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2 class health workforce of N... more INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2 class health workforce of Nepal. Syndromic Sexually Transmitted Infection Case Management/Reproductive Health (SSCM/RH) training for AHWs is designed to develop knowledge, attitude and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the training in knowledge and practice of AHWs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Achham district from where all AHWs were purposively selected for cross-sectional study. Total number of trained AHWs was 35 and untrained was 19, who were interviewed to fulfill the structured pretested th th questionnaire that included knowledge inventory and self reported practice.The data collected from29 May to 25 July, 2005. Written consent was taken from respondents after permission taken from Achham DHO. Statistical tests used were mean, median, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rho and chi-square. Values with p<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS : All AHWs were male, with mean age of 32.1 years. Regarding knowledge, the scores in all syndromes diagnosis and treatment regimen were significantly different in two groups except in two syndromes. Two practices were found significant. The median knowledge score was 20 (IQR, 16-22) and 16 (IQR, 12-20) in trained and untrained respectively. Similarly, median practice score was found 14 (IQR, 10-16) and 7 (IQR, 6-9) in trained and untrained respectively. In aggregate, both the practice score (U=38.5, p<0.001, two-tailed) and the knowledge score (U=205, p=0.020, two-tailed) of trained group significantly differed from that of untrained. Knowledge and practice score was also found positively and moderately correlated (P=0.616, p<0.001, two-tailed). CONCLUSION: The training was effectivein bringing about changes both in knowledge and practice of AHWs. The higher the knowledge level, the higher the practice level. KEYWORDS: Sexual, Disease, Infection, Health worker, Knowledge, Practice
ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, an... more ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, and is also key to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health equity. The Government of Nepal launched SHIP in the Fiscal Year 2015/16 for the first phase in three districts, on the principle of financial risk protection through prepayment and risk pooling in health care. Furthermore, the adoption of the program depends on the stakeholders' behaviors, mainly, the beneficiaries and the providers. Therefore, we aimed to explore and assess their perception and experiences regarding various factors acting on SHIP enrollment and adherence.MethodsA cross-sectional, facility-based, concurrent mixed-methods study was carried out in seven health facilities in the Kailali, Baglung, and Ilam districts of Nepal. A total of 822 beneficiaries, sampled using probability proportional to size (PPS), attending health care institutions, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire for quantitative d...
Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 2016
Background: Majority of neonatal and maternal mortalities occur in developing countries. Moreover... more Background: Majority of neonatal and maternal mortalities occur in developing countries. Moreover, around half of both mortalities occur in immediate postnatal period. Postnatal care utilization is aimed to reduce both mortalities and promote their health status.Methods: We searched PubMed, Google Scholar and HINARI between Jan 1, 2006 and Apr 31, 2014. Cross-sectional studies, surveys published in English language with finding of percentage of and factors affecting postnatal care utilization were included in the analysis. Weighted percentage with 95% CI was calculated to summarize the proportion. Odds ratio of minimum and maximum value was used to summarize associated factors. P-value <0.01 was taken as cut-off for significance of associated factors.Results: Of 45 accessed and reviewed full-text articles, nine included in the review. The studies were conducted in seven countries and total postnatal mothers in all samples were 49385. The weighted percentage of postnatal service u...
Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in dr... more Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in drinking water sources of open defaecation free (ODF) village development committees (VDCs) of Kaski district; to compare distribution of Total coliform (TC) and Faecal count (FC) among various water sources. Study Design: Cross-sectional Study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Health and Allied Sciences, Pokhara University, December 2013 to March, 2014. Methodology: The study was conducted to detect and enumerate indicator organisms in ODF Original Research Article Pant et al.; BMRJ, 7(2): 81-92, 2015; Article no.BMRJ.2015.098 82 VDCs of Kaski district, Nepal. 44 water samples were collected from reservoir / distribution tank, tapstand and spring. The bacteriological water quality was analyzed by using membrane filter method to detect the presence and its risk level of fecal contamination to human health in study area. The study mainly focuses on two part of the study; laboratory analysis for water samples and questionnaire survey. Total water samples collected were 44, out of which 32 were from tap, 3 from reservoir tank and 9 from spring. Chlorine disinfection treatment was not done in any VDCs. Results: All the drinking water samples from Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDCs (100%) were found to be fecally contaminated and the number of total coliforms and fecal coliform per 100ml water were above WHO guidelines for drinking water. None of the water sources from both the VDCs were potable for drinking. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare mean range between samples of two VDCs and mean rank of total coliforms of Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDC were found to be 29.18 and 13.17 and that of Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDCs were found to be 29.80 and 12.89 respectively. Tap water, reservoir/distribution tank and spring water were analyzed to detect indicator organisms and Kruskal Wallis test suggest no significant difference in fecal contamination level among various sources of water was found (p>0.05). The median concentration of fecal coliform of gravity water (spring) in Bharatpokhari was found to be 95 CFU/100 ml and that of Kalika is 40 CFU/100 ml. E. coli was detected in every water samples of both the VDCs. Conclusion: The water bodies used for drinking purpose in Bharatpokhari and Kalika VDC are heavily contaminated with total and fecal coliform bacteria even though those VDCs have been declared ODF. The water bodies used for drinking purpose in Bharatpokhari is found to be more contaminated than Kalika VDC. The distribution of total coliforms and fecal coliforms are same across categories of source of sample. E. coli was isolated from every water sample under study.
Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences, 2014
INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2nd class health workforce o... more INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2nd class health workforce of Nepal. Syndromic Sexually Transmitted Infection Case Management/Reproductive Health (SSCM/RH) training for AHWs is designed to develop knowledge, attitude and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the training in knowledge and practice of AHWs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Achham district from where all AHWs were purposively selected for cross-sectional study. Total number of trained AHWs was 35 and untrained was 19, who were interviewed to fulfill the structured pretested questionnaire that included knowledge inventory and self reported practice.The data collected from29th May to 25th July, 2005. Written consent was taken from respondents after permission taken from Achham DHO. Statistical tests used were mean, median, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rho and chi-square. Values with p < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS : All AHWs were male, w...
Introduction: Adolescence is a stage of human life linked with gradual changes and rapid developm... more Introduction: Adolescence is a stage of human life linked with gradual changes and rapid development. A good nutrition plays important in maintaining good health. Body image dissatisfaction affects the food habit and nutrition of the adolescent especially girls as they are concerned about their body image. Objective: To find out the relationship between nutritional status and body image dissatisfaction among adolescent girls. Methods: A Cross sectional study was carried out in Kaski district, Nepal from October 2013 to January 2014 among 240 female adolescent students of 11-19 years of age selected randomly from 8 schools of grade six to twelve using multistage simple random sampling technique. Structured self administered questionnaire, anthropometric assessment and figure rating scale were used. Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Software for Social Sciences Version 16. Results: Few (4.6%) of the adolescents girls were classified as underweight, 80.4 percent were norm...
ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, an... more ObjectiveThe Social Health Insurance Program (SHIP) shares a major portion of social security, and is also key to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health equity. The Government of Nepal launched SHIP in the Fiscal Year 2015/16 for the first phase in three districts, on the principle of financial risk protection through prepayment and risk pooling in health care. Furthermore, the adoption of the program depends on the stakeholders' behaviors, mainly, the beneficiaries and the providers. Therefore, we aimed to explore and assess their perception and experiences regarding various factors acting on SHIP enrollment and adherence.MethodsA cross-sectional, facility-based, concurrent mixed-methods study was carried out in seven health facilities in the Kailali, Baglung, and Ilam districts of Nepal. A total of 822 beneficiaries, sampled using probability proportional to size (PPS), attending health care institutions, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire for quantitative d...
Introduction: Globally, tobacco kills more than seven million people per year. In Nepal, more tha... more Introduction: Globally, tobacco kills more than seven million people per year. In Nepal, more than fifty different types of tobacco products, both in smoke and smokeless forms, are available. Pictorial health warning labels (PHWLs) on tobacco products provide an effective way to aware both literates and illiterates about the health effects of tobacco use. This study aimed to assess the perceived effectiveness of pictorial health warning labels of tobacco products and associated factors among smokers and quitters. Methods: The study design was community-based cross-sectional analytical with the quantitative method. We interviewed 389 adults (111 Quitters and 278 Smokers) of Kaski district. The sample was taken from both rural and urban areas based on existing household proportion. Ethical approval was taken from NHRC. We entered data in EpiData and analyzed in SPSS softwares. The perceived effectiveness scores of PHWLs were calculated (alpha ranges from 0.91 to 0.96) and compared amo...
Background: In general, skills are abilities that enable people to carry out specific behaviours ... more Background: In general, skills are abilities that enable people to carry out specific behaviours and are the abilities to perform a specific work and fundamental to adopt a new behavior. Skills are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. From the literature, it is evident that skills have also stages. There are six pairs of generic life skills and one of the pairs is self awareness and empathy skills (SAES). It includes two skills; self-awareness and empathy. Self-awareness is the perception and understanding of feeling, idea, emotion and control of emotion. Empathy is the ability to understand others’ feelings. As from literature, skills have their stages; this study aims to find out the stages of SAES and relationship of the stages with likely depression. Mental, neurological and substance use disorders exact a high toll on health outcomes, accounting for 13% of the total global burden of disease. Depression alone accounts for 4.3% of the global burden of disease and is among the la...
Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in dr... more Aims: The aim of the project is to detect and enumerate the presence of indicator organisms in drinking water sources of open defaecation free (ODF) village development committees (VDCs) of Kaski district; to compare distribution of Total coliform (TC) and Faecal count (FC) among various water sources. Study Design: Cross-sectional Study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Health and Allied Sciences, Pokhara University, December 2013 to March, 2014. Methodology: The study was conducted to detect and enumerate indicator organisms in ODF Original Research Article Pant et al.; BMRJ, 7(2): 81-92, 2015; Article no.BMRJ.2015.098 82 VDCs of Kaski district, Nepal. 44 water samples were collected from reservoir / distribution tank, tapstand and spring. The bacteriological water quality was analyzed by using membrane filter method to detect the presence and its risk level of fecal contamination to human health in study area. The study mainly focus...
INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2 class health workforce of N... more INTRODUCTION: Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) are the undergraduate 2 class health workforce of Nepal. Syndromic Sexually Transmitted Infection Case Management/Reproductive Health (SSCM/RH) training for AHWs is designed to develop knowledge, attitude and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the training in knowledge and practice of AHWs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Achham district from where all AHWs were purposively selected for cross-sectional study. Total number of trained AHWs was 35 and untrained was 19, who were interviewed to fulfill the structured pretested th th questionnaire that included knowledge inventory and self reported practice.The data collected from29 May to 25 July, 2005. Written consent was taken from respondents after permission taken from Achham DHO. Statistical tests used were mean, median, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rho and chi-square. Values with p<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS : All AHWs were male, with mean age of 32.1 years. Regarding knowledge, the scores in all syndromes diagnosis and treatment regimen were significantly different in two groups except in two syndromes. Two practices were found significant. The median knowledge score was 20 (IQR, 16-22) and 16 (IQR, 12-20) in trained and untrained respectively. Similarly, median practice score was found 14 (IQR, 10-16) and 7 (IQR, 6-9) in trained and untrained respectively. In aggregate, both the practice score (U=38.5, p<0.001, two-tailed) and the knowledge score (U=205, p=0.020, two-tailed) of trained group significantly differed from that of untrained. Knowledge and practice score was also found positively and moderately correlated (P=0.616, p<0.001, two-tailed). CONCLUSION: The training was effectivein bringing about changes both in knowledge and practice of AHWs. The higher the knowledge level, the higher the practice level. KEYWORDS: Sexual, Disease, Infection, Health worker, Knowledge, Practice
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Papers by Chiran Adhikari
Syndromic Sexually Transmitted Infection Case Management/Reproductive Health (SSCM/RH) training for AHWs is
designed to develop knowledge, attitude and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the
training in knowledge and practice of AHWs.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Achham district from where all AHWs were purposively selected for cross-sectional
study. Total number of trained AHWs was 35 and untrained was 19, who were interviewed to fulfill the structured pretested
th th questionnaire that included knowledge inventory and self reported practice.The data collected from29 May to 25 July,
2005. Written consent was taken from respondents after permission taken from Achham DHO. Statistical tests used were
mean, median, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rho and chi-square. Values with p<0.05 was considered significant.
RESULTS : All AHWs were male, with mean age of 32.1 years. Regarding knowledge, the scores in all syndromes
diagnosis and treatment regimen were significantly different in two groups except in two syndromes. Two practices were
found significant. The median knowledge score was 20 (IQR, 16-22) and 16 (IQR, 12-20) in trained and untrained
respectively. Similarly, median practice score was found 14 (IQR, 10-16) and 7 (IQR, 6-9) in trained and untrained
respectively. In aggregate, both the practice score (U=38.5, p<0.001, two-tailed) and the knowledge score (U=205,
p=0.020, two-tailed) of trained group significantly differed from that of untrained. Knowledge and practice score was also
found positively and moderately correlated (P=0.616, p<0.001, two-tailed).
CONCLUSION: The training was effectivein bringing about changes both in knowledge and practice of AHWs. The
higher the knowledge level, the higher the practice level.
KEYWORDS: Sexual, Disease, Infection, Health worker, Knowledge, Practice
Syndromic Sexually Transmitted Infection Case Management/Reproductive Health (SSCM/RH) training for AHWs is
designed to develop knowledge, attitude and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the
training in knowledge and practice of AHWs.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Achham district from where all AHWs were purposively selected for cross-sectional
study. Total number of trained AHWs was 35 and untrained was 19, who were interviewed to fulfill the structured pretested
th th questionnaire that included knowledge inventory and self reported practice.The data collected from29 May to 25 July,
2005. Written consent was taken from respondents after permission taken from Achham DHO. Statistical tests used were
mean, median, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rho and chi-square. Values with p<0.05 was considered significant.
RESULTS : All AHWs were male, with mean age of 32.1 years. Regarding knowledge, the scores in all syndromes
diagnosis and treatment regimen were significantly different in two groups except in two syndromes. Two practices were
found significant. The median knowledge score was 20 (IQR, 16-22) and 16 (IQR, 12-20) in trained and untrained
respectively. Similarly, median practice score was found 14 (IQR, 10-16) and 7 (IQR, 6-9) in trained and untrained
respectively. In aggregate, both the practice score (U=38.5, p<0.001, two-tailed) and the knowledge score (U=205,
p=0.020, two-tailed) of trained group significantly differed from that of untrained. Knowledge and practice score was also
found positively and moderately correlated (P=0.616, p<0.001, two-tailed).
CONCLUSION: The training was effectivein bringing about changes both in knowledge and practice of AHWs. The
higher the knowledge level, the higher the practice level.
KEYWORDS: Sexual, Disease, Infection, Health worker, Knowledge, Practice