Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Mothers on Prevention and Control of Intestinal Parasitic Infestations in Sekota Town, Waghimra Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract Background: Intestinal parasites are a major public health problem in several developing countries. It accounts for 1.5 billion infections with one or more intestinal parasitic agents. The prevalence of helminthiases in Ethiopia was 29.8%. Specially, young children have a high infestation rate and suffer from a substantial burden of Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and Schistosomes.Therefore, this study was intended to assess mother’s knowledge, attitude and practice on prevention and control of intestinal parasitic infestations among their pre-school children in Sekota town, Ethiopia, 2019.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was designed to be conducted on 384 mothers using simple random sampling method. But the data were collected from 378 mother-child pairs which gave a response rate of 98.4% using an interview-based questionnaire in the urban villages, Sekota town. The findings were presented in percentage, frequency and tables. In order to assure the quality of data, in all of the data collection, data analysis, and write up, a standard operational procedure was followed. Results: The overall level of good maternal knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice in preventing and controlling intestinal parasitic infection with a considering of their pre-school children was 45.2%, 55.3%, and 51.1% respectively. Seventy-seven (20.4%) respondents reported that they knew Ascaris lumbricoides, 62 (16.4%) participants wash vegetables as a means of intestinal prevention, and 252 (66.7%) of participants stated that their children had at least one history of stool examination.Conclusions: The overall level of optimum knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers on prevention and control of intestinal parasites is low. In particular, the level of optimal knowledge is significantly low. Therefore, community awareness about intestinal parasitic infestations prevention and control should be created through campaign or well-designed training and health education.Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Parasites, Infestation, Mothers, Children, Sekota, Ethiopia