Low Knowledge and Attitude Towards Visceral Leishmaniasis Among Migrants and Seasonal Farm Workers in Northwest Ethiopia.

Objective: Ethiopia has the second highest burden of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) next to Sudan. North West Ethiopia alone accounts for 60% of the national burden. Migrant and seasonal farmworkers were the riskiest groups. Good knowledge and attitude on VL is a precursor for successful control of the disease. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine knowledge and attitude towards VL and its associated factors among migrants and seasonal farmworkers in West Gondar zone, Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from October to November 2018 in Metema and West Armachiho districts. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to select 950 migrant and seasonal farmworkers. A binary logistic regression model was fitted and variables having a -value<0.05 were considered to have a significant association with the outcome variable. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used as a measure of association. The goodness of fit test was assessed by Hosmer-Lemeshow test.

Results: Of the total participants, 33.2% (95% CI=30.2-36.2) and 30.2% (95% CI=27.4-33.2) were found to have good knowledge and favorable attitude towards VL, respectively. Factors associated with good knowledge include having health information (AOR=3.2, 95% CI=2.3-4.4), previous history of VL (AOR=6.8, 95% CI=3.7-12.8), and higher age (AOR=1.58, 95% CI=1.12-2.23). Moreover, factors associated with favorable attitude include having health information (AOR=2.8, 95% CI=2.0-3.9), previous history of VL (AOR=2.3, 95% CI=1.3-4.1), good knowledge (AOR=2.4, 95% CI=1.7-3.3), and larger number of visits to the farm area (AOR=2.5, 95% CI=1.5-4.1).

Conclusion: In this study, knowledge and attitude of migrants and seasonal farmworkers towards VL were low. Having health information and previous history of VL had increased the odds of both knowledge and attitude. Tailored interventions for the migrant seasonal farmworkers focusing on knowledge and attitude of VL would be supremely important.