Knowledge about swine flu among patients seeking health care in a tertiary and primary health care facility in Puducherry

Background: Swine flu/Novel H1N1 influenza Pandemic was in Phase 6 in June 2009. Success of mitigation would depend on compliance of the community particularly to non-pharmacological interventions which in turn would be dependent on the familiarity regarding prevention and control of flu pandemic. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study among out-patient attendees of a tertiary and primary health care facility in Puducherry, wherein 267 patients were interviewed to assess the knowledge about swine flu and factors determining it. The knowledge was categorised as Good (50-100 %) and Poor (0-49.99%), and simple scoring method was used. A subcategory of Good was defined as Very Good if knowledge score was > 75%. Data was summarised using proportions and analysed using Chi-square test for associations using statistical package for social science (SPSS version 17.0). P value < 0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Good knowledge (score > 50 %) was significantly associated with younger age, literacy, accessibility to information hoardings within the premises of health facility and multiple sources of information. Three fourths weren’t aware of the correct method of diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Conclusions: There were lacunae in knowledge level regarding swine flu among study subjects. There was need for future research for evaluating the impact of need based health messages on health seeking behaviour among the people.