Effect of Educational Leaflets on Knowledge & Attitude to Tuberculosis among Homeless Persons in Tokyo, Japan
SETTING:
Delay in
seeking care is one of the critical issues in tuberculosis (TB) control among
homeless persons in Japan. Yet knowledge of and attitude towards TB among
homeless persons have remained unclear and limited efforts have been made to
disseminate information related to TB among homeless persons.
OBJECTIVE:
To
evaluate the effect of TB leaflets, produced and distributed to homeless
persons by a group of ex-homeless TB patients, and to understand what homeless
persons know about TB.
DESIGN:
Self-administered
questionnaire was conducted among homeless persons before and after
distribution of the TB leaflets. Changes in the responses to each question were
also subjected to principal component analysis to group questions into types
according to response patterns and identify constructs of TB-related knowledge.
RESULTS:
Results
of 88 participants were analyzed. TB knowledge score related to risks and
symptoms significantly improved after the intervention (from 54.3% to 70.6%, p
< 0.05), while knowledge on treatment cost did not. Two components were
identified, namely, the "improvement in TB impression" and
"improvement in TB knowledge".
CONCLUSION:
TB
leaflets were effective in improving certain aspects of TB knowledge. However,
its effect on knowledge regarding treatment cost, which may be crucial in
improving delay, was limited and thus the messages need to be revised.
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