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. 2024 Apr;26(2):351-360.
doi: 10.1007/s10903-023-01543-9. Epub 2023 Aug 29.

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Prevention Barriers Related to Childhood Lead Poisoning Among Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese Parents in Northeast Ohio, United States

Sunita Shakya  1 , Maggie Stedman-Smith  1 , P Cooper White  2 , Madhav P Bhatta  3
Affiliations

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Prevention Barriers Related to Childhood Lead Poisoning Among Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese Parents in Northeast Ohio, United States

Sunita Shakya et al. J Immigr Minor Health. 2024 Apr.

Abstract

The study objectives were: (i) to develop and administer a survey to assess childhood lead poisoning (CLP) knowledge, attitudes, practices and prevention barriers (KAP-B) among the Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese (NSB) community in Northeast Ohio; and (ii) to examine the association between socio-demographic characteristics of NSB parents and their understanding of CLP as measured by the constructs of knowledge and attitudes. A Nepali language KAP-B questionnaire was developed and 200 NSB parents with at least one child ≤ 7 years of age from the Akron Metropolitan Area, Ohio were interviewed. NSB parents demonstrated a low level of knowledge about CLP prevention measures. While 82% lived in pre-1978 houses, only 27.5% perceived their house/neighborhood to be potentially lead contaminated. Only 33% of the parents reported understanding lead-related information provided by their child's healthcare provider. Low-level CLP awareness among NSB community emphasizes a need for culturally tailored and linguistically appropriate community-level CLP educational intervention programs in this vulnerable community.

Keywords: Attitudes; Bhutanese refugees; Childhood lead poisoning; Knowledge; Practices; Prevention barriers.

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