A study on knowledge, attitude and practice of rabies among residents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

This study was conducted in Addis Ababa during the months of January and February, 2011 to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the communities on rabies. A cross-sectional study design and multistage sampling procedures were employed to select households for this study. Kebeles were randomly selected using lottery method from list of kebeles in each sub city, followed by selection of 42 households from each kebeles using systematic random sampling method. The data were collected from 1260 households through face to face interview using pre tested and structured questionnaires. Eighty three percent of the respondents indicated that they had previously heard about rabies. The majority of the study participants 932(75.2%) had moderate level of knowledge and those with satisfactory level of attitude were 649(52.3%) and with intermediate level of appropriate practices were 831(67.0%). There was strong association between knowledge scores and sex; educational level; occupation and household size (p<0.05). However, statistically significant difference was observed only between attitude scores and: age, educational level and monthly income (p<0.05). In this study, higher scores in practices to prevent rabies were recorded in male respondents those who completed higher education (p <0.05). Moreover, there was a strong positive correlation between knowledge and practice; attitude and practice. In this study a moderate level of awareness was shown with regard to rabies among the residents of Addis Ababa. Additionally, inaccessibility to appropriate services was also considered as a major reason for the low level of community participation in rabies prevention and control activities. Key Words: Attitude, community, Knowledge, Practice, rabies