Community attitude and practice towards skin disease prevention in a rural community in Busia County

Abstract

Background: Skin conditions were the fourth leading cause of nonfatal burden globally, expressed as years lost due to disability and eighteenth leading cause of health burden worldwide, expressed as disability adjusted life years. From Busia County health sector strategic and investment plan 2018-2023 report, skin diseases was third leading cause of morbidity in the county with 6.5%. Skin diseases, though very common in many developing countries, are not often regarded as a significant health problem even though serious diseases may be heralded by skin changes. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study design was adopted. Data was collected using questionnaires; it was entered in a password protected excels spreadsheets with accessibility limited to the research investigator; data analysis was done using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 23; and presented in bar graphs and tables. Results: It was revealed that 68.4% (N=273) had poor attitude towards skin diseases; 58.6% (N=234) of the respondents had poor practice towards prevention of skin diseases; and there was a significant association between community attitude towards skin diseases and practice towards skin diseases prevention. Conclusions: The community practice towards prevention of skin diseases is predicted by the community attitude towards skin diseases.