A Study on the Awareness Regarding Pulmonary Tuberculosis Among Carpet Workers of Productive Age Group (15-49 years) in Lalitpur district

Abstract

Background: The carpet industry is the highest industrial employment generator in Nepal and has become particularly beneficial to the mass work force that is illiterate or hardly had any education background. The risk of Tuberculosis infection is more in carpet factories because of overcrowding, poor environment, lack of working space, ignorance of health care. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted from 2nd Baisakh to 4th Jestha 2058. Data was collected from 100 respondents in 8 different carpet factories using simple random sampling procedure. Questionnaire was used to collect information from the respondents. Results: More than half of the respondents (60%) had high level of awareness. 75.35% respondents had knowledge about transmission, only 13.40% had knowledge about cause, more than 60% had knowledge about signs and symptoms and 40.21% had knowledge about vaccination against pulmonary tuberculosis. 72.16% respondent knew about the treatment but only 45.71% had knowledge about correct duration of medicine. 85.57% respondents knew the treatment available place. Only 28.57% respondents had no knowledge about preventive measures of pulmonary tuberculosis. 82.47% respondents showed good attitude towards the patients of pulmonary tuberculosis. Conclusions: Only a small number of respondents had high level of awareness and access to wide range of different sources of information that helps to obtain knowledge on pulmonary tuberculosis. Keywords: attitude; awareness; carpet factory; knowledge; pulmonary tuberculosis.