Abstract:

Objective To assess the current status of tuberculosis knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) and their relationships among elderly people in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Methods With simple random sampling, we selected 2517 elderly people aged 65 years or older who were registered in communities of Nanshan District, Shenzhen in 2018, conducted a cross-sectional survey on KAP towards tuberculosis prevention and control among them. 2517 questionnaires were sent out and 2360 valid questionnaires were retrieved, with a valid rate of 93.8%. Descriptive analysis was done to describe the KAP status, univariate analysis was conducted to analyze KAP scores among people with different sociodemographic characteristics, and Spearman’s correlation and four-quadrant analysis were done to explore the correlations among KAP scores. The statistical significance was set as α=0.05. Results The total awareness rate of tuberculosis prevention knowledge was 56.3% (7970/14160), the total correctness of tuberculosis attitude was 75.0% (8853/11800), and the total correctness of tuberculosis behavior was 61.4% (8689/14160) among elderly people in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in belief scores (t=2.386, P=0.017) and behavior scores (t=2.131, P=0.033) among different genders. The KAP scores among people with different educational levels were all statistically significant (F=36.561,P=0.000;F=65.586,P=0.000;F=39.126,P=0.000). The KAP scores among people with different marital status were all statistically significant (F=36.561,P=0.000;F=65.586,P=0.000;F=39.126,P=0.000);The KAP scores among people with different household registration locations (local or migrant) were statistically significant (t=5.536,P=0.000,t=10.062,P=0.000,t=8.080,P=0.000). The KAP scores among people with different income levels were statistically significant (F=34.483,P=0.000;F=54.469,P=0.000;F=33.238,P=0.000). Spearman correlation coefficient analysis showed that there were correlations among KAP scores. The correlation coefficient between knowledge score and belief score was 0.387 (P<0.05), the correlation coefficient between knowledge score and behavior score was 0.397 (P<0.05), and the correlation coefficient between belief score and behavior score was 0.442 (P<0.05). The four-quadrant analysis showed that there was 0.7% (16/2360) of people who had better knowledge and behavior(quadrant Ⅰ), 8.7% (206/2360) of people who did not have relevant knowledge but perform better behaviors(quadrant Ⅱ), 86.4% (2040/2360) of people who had poor knowledge and behavior(quadrant Ⅲ), and 4.2% (98/2360) of people who had better knowledge and poor behavior(quadrant Ⅳ). Conclusion The KAP scores towards tuberculosis prevention and control among the elderly in the Nanshan District is relatively low. To improve KAP scores, we should develop different health education programs towards tuberculosis prevention and control based on their sociodemographic characteristics.

Key words: Health knowledge, attitudes, practice, Tuberculosis, Tuberculosis, Questionnaires, Aged, Shenzhen City