Association between living in the endemic area and level of knowledge of visceral leishmaniasis

Abstract

Background: Iran is a country with a high prevalence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and seven endemic provinces. In this study, we tried to identify unobserved classes of knowledge among Iranians toward VL and assess the predictors of each latent class.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected participants from endemic and non-endemic areas of VL in Iran in 2020 and 2021. The collected data included demographic characteristics and questions about knowledge, attitude, and practice toward VL. We performed latent class analysis using a procedure for latent class analysis (PROC LCA) in SAS to identify the class membership of knowledge of participants toward VL.

Results: Five latent classes were identified: very low (38.9%), low (15.5%), moderate (6.2%), high (14.1%), and very high (25.2%) knowledge about VL. Living in endemic areas significantly increased the odds of belonging to the low (adjusted OR (AOR = 7.23; 95% confidence interval (CI):4.52-11.58), high (AOR = 2.71; 95%CI: 1.73-4.23), and very high (AOR = 8.47; 95%CI: 5.78-12.41) classes compared to the very low class. Also, having academic education increased the odds of membership in the very high class (AOR = 2.36; 95%CI: 1.61-3.47) compared to the very low class.

Conclusion: This study revealed that more than 50% of the participants fell into the latent classes of very low and low knowledge toward VL. Some educational workshops in the endemic areas could be effective in enhancing knowledge about VL.

Keywords: Endemic; Iran; Knowledge; Visceral leishmaniasis.

Fig. 1

The studied areas include two parts, 6 provinces are endemic areas (red color), 4 provinces are non-endemic areas of visceral leishmaniasis (yellow color), and the rest of the provinces have not been studied (white color)