| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 9
| Issue : 2 | Page : 72-76 |
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Awareness about new guidelines of national tuberculosis elimination program among medical college faculty
Prashant R Kokiwar, N Asritha, N Ganesh, N Neelima Reddy, NU Dakshayani, N Nikitha, P Naresh, K Snigdha, B Naila, N Vyshnavi, P Nikhil, P Saikrishna, P Sukanya, P Mounika
Department of Community Medicine, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Prashant R Kokiwar
Department of Community Medicine, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Suraram, Hyderabad, Telangana
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/mjhs.mjhs_1_20
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Background: Physicians and faculty working in Medical Colleges play a major role in tuberculosis (TB) control. Their knowledge, attitude, and practices can affect the treatment and care of TB patients significantly.
Objectives: The objectives were to assess the awareness about new guidelines of National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) among medical college faculty.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 95 faculties. They were given anonymous self-administered questionnaire with 23 questions. One mark was given for each correct answer. We classified correct knowledge as score >10 and poor knowledge as score <10. Yates-corrected Chi-square was used to study the association between variables and outcomes. P 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Questions about case detection rate, cure rate, incentives to private practitioner, bedaquiline, and follow-up of patients after completion of treatment were very poorly answered (<10 persons had correct knowledge). Only 17 could answer about the fixed-dose combinations, 10 about 99 Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (DOTS) chemotherapy, and 13 about the choice of treatment in HIV-TB. Best answered questions were about the drugs used in each DOTS category, categories of DOTS, what are multidrug-resistant TB, extensive drug-resistant TB, and definition of presumptive case of TB. Overall, 58 faculties (61.1%) had poor knowledge with a score <11. The remaining 37 (38.9%) had correct knowledge with a score 11 or more. Correct knowledge was not found to be associated with age, sex, and designation but was associated with professional experience, with higher experience being associated with poor knowledge (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Majority of the faculty in the studied medical colleges had poor knowledge about new updates/guidelines in the NTEP. Professional experience was found to be significantly associated with the correct knowledge on recent updates in NTEP.
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