Assessment of Household Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices about the Most Health Problems at al-Matammah, West Nile River State, Sudan

Assessment of Household Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices about the most Health Problems at al-Matammah, West Nile River State, Sudan Nagwa B. Elhag1, Shadia M Idris2 and Najm Eldinn Elsser Elhassan3 1Department of Food Hygiene and Safety, College of Public & Environmental Health, University of Bahri, Khartoum North, Sudan. nagwababiker@gmail. com.2Department of Food Hygiene and Safety, College of Public & Environmental Health, University of Bahri, Khartoum North, Sudan. edshadiamoh@yahoo. com 3Department of Environmental Health, College of Pubic & Environmental Health, University of Bahri, Khartoum North, Sudan. Knowledge survey, attitude and practices are essential elements to prevent and control the health problems and diseases in developing countries. These elements have a great concern by government and different community sectors nowadays. This study was aimed to assess the level of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of women in Sudanese community at al-Matammah West River Nile State. A descriptive systematic study was used. A questionnaire for 94 households was used to investigate the preliminary information of the socio-demographic status, hygienic and safety practices of respondents. Data obtained was analyzed by computer using SPSS, version 20. Results revealed that 92.4 of the respondents receiving low or middle level of education or illiterate. There was a significant association between male education, family size, house conditions and distance of WC from water sources at home. Most of the respondents exhibited a high percentage (77.66 %) of large family size living in medium sanitary conditions (57.5 %). The study showed a poor knowledge and practices about drinking water and improper transfer of wastes. The most popular diseases were malaria (69.014 %), diarrhea (18.31 %), typhoid (5.63 %) and 7.04 % for the others. The majority of the participants (92.55 %) claimed that they could treat patients at health centers and 68.82 % of them recorded that there is no health education lectures held for health awareness. The role of the locality was very weak in presenting lectures which reported 21 % by the respondents. Education and health education as a part of control programs are important and essential to improve the health awareness among the households. People behavior, culture, knowledge, attitude, practices and lack of capability or inability of controlling programs may increase diseases percent, therefore it is recommended to establish different programs to achieve sustainable and effective control.