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. 2021 Aug 19:8:699352.
doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.699352. eCollection 2021.

The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Dog Owners on Dog Rabies Control in Thailand

Sith Premashthira  1 , Sarin Suwanpakdee  2 , Weerapong Thanapongtharm  1 , Onpawee Sagarasaeranee  1 , Weerakorn Thichumpa  3 , Chayanin Sararat  4 , Anuwat Wiratsudakul  2
Affiliations

The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Dog Owners on Dog Rabies Control in Thailand

Sith Premashthira et al. Front Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Rabies is a deadly zoonotic disease responsible for almost 60,000 deaths each year, especially in Africa and Asia including Thailand. Dogs are the major reservoirs for rabies virus in these settings. This study thus used the concept of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) to identify socioeconomic factors that contribute to the differences in the canine rabies occurrences in high and low-risk areas which were classified by a Generalized Additive Model (GAM). Multistage sampling was then applied to designate the study locations and a KAP-based questionnaire was used to retrieve data and relevant perspectives from the respondents. Based on the responses from 476 participants living across four regions of Thailand, we found that the knowledge of the participants was positively correlated with their behaviors but negatively associated with the attitudes. Participants who are male, younger, educated at the level of middle to high school, or raising more dogs are likely to have negative attitudes but good knowledge on rabies prevention and control whereas farmers with lower income had better attitudes regardless of their knowledge. We found that people in a lower socioeconomic status with a lack of knowledge are not willing to pay at a higher vaccine price. Public education is a key to change dog owners' behaviors. Related authorities should constantly educate people on how to prevent and control rabies in their communities. Our findings should be applicable to other countries with similar socioeconomic statuses.

Keywords: KAP; epidemiology; public education; willingness to pay; zoonosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A map depicting the risk level of canine rabies transmission at district level for the selection of study areas (shaded; A–D) in the four main regions of Thailand.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of the adjusted scores of attitudes, knowledge, and practices between the high and low-risk areas for rabies transmission.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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