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Abstract
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is contagious and the transmission risk is high in congregate settings like school. Incidence of TB among adolescents is significantly high hence an education programme was developed to improve knowledge, attitude, practice and stigma (KAPS) among them.
Methods: This school-based, non-randomised controlled study was conducted among secondary school students with a total of 236 respondents. The KAPS score were assessed before and 1 month after using self-administered validated KAPS questionnaire on TB. Analysis was done using repeated measures ANOVA.
Results: The mean percentage score (SD) for baseline knowledge, attitude, practice and stigma score for the respondents were 54.0 (4.48), 65.6 (1.74), 70.0 (1.43) and 66.0 (6.88), respectively. There was a significant difference (P < 0.001) in the knowledge and stigma score for intervention group compared to control group, adjusted for gender, ethnicity and smoking status 4 weeks post-TB educational programme. However, with regards to attitude and practice score, there was no significant difference (P = 0.210 and P = 0.243, respectively).
Conclusion: TB education programme was effective in improving knowledge and stigma related to TB. This health education programme can be used as one of the strategies for the prevention and control of TB in schools.
Keywords: tuberculosis, adolescents, knowledge, attitude, practice, stigma
Introduction
Despite having a comprehensive tuberculosis (TB) control programme, Malaysia has a high number of cases with TB continues to be a global health problem that affects millions of people each year. In 20İ7, the World Health Organization (WHO) (i) reported the estimated TB rate in Malaysia as 93 in i00,000. Thus, Malaysia was categorised as an intermediate TB-burden country. Malaysia has implemented high quality TB management in combating TB since i96i, yet our treatment success rate for TB remains below 90% (2).
A national study found that children and adolescents accounted for 8.5% of the TB cases with high TB incidence was reported between age group of 10 to 19 years old (3). A survey conducted in Kelantan obtained similar results: 8.4% of the registered TB cases in 2012-2015 were children and adolescents, where the mean age for TB infection was 15.98 years (4). Current scenario indicates that effective TB control strategies involving adolescents should be established to control TB transmission and aim to end the...