Knowledge, attitude and practice of preventing helminth infections among students of CMUL, Idi Araba

Background Helminth infections (Intestinal Helminthiasis) have been recognized as an important public health concern, particularly in developing countries. It is however noteworthy that improvement in personal hygiene, sanitation, food handling and food consumption habits could provide effective prevention of transmission of the parasites. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of prevention of helminth infections among first and final professional year students of College of Medicine, University of Lagos and determine the association between the students' levels and their responses. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out among 485 students with 222 students at first professional level and 263 students in the final year, based on the study population. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect data and the data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS version 22.0). Results Response rate was 93.4% (453 out of 485). Majority of the respondents 329(72.6%) had good knowledge on the prevention of helminth infections, 384(84.7%) of the respondents had positive attitude towards the prevention of helminth infection and most of the respondents 420(92.7%) had good practice of the preventing helminth infections. The final year students however possessed a significant higher knowledge, better attitude and practice of preventing helminth infections than the first year students (p = 0.000, 0.002 and 0.003 respectively), hereby indicating a significant relationship between students' level and their knowledge, attitude and practice of preventing helminth infections. Conclusions The study revealed that the respondents generally had good knowledge, attitude and practices of the prevention of helminth infections and that there is a significant relationship between these and the students' year or level of study Key messages Knowledge, attitude and practice of the students will affect their provision of public health services on prevention of helminth infections among the general populace when they eventually graduate. Years of training affect the knowledge, attitude and practice of undergraduate students of CMUL in prevention of helminth infections.