Knowledge, attitudes, and practices relating to rabies control in Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines

The study assessed knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) pertinent to rabies among 1187 households from 68 barangays in Baybay City to provide baseline information on the levels of knowledge, attitudes and practices on rabies control, to determine the magnitude of effects of factors that are associated with increased KAP levels, and to determine the magnitude of effects these factors have on the community KAP scores. Demographic information was produced and KAP scores were evaluated by linear regression. Almost all (97.81%) of the respondents have heard about rabies but more than half (63.91%) still think that all dogs intrinsically have rabies. Only 47.63% of dog owners have dogs immunized against rabies within the past year. Livestock technicians, local government IEC campaigns, and family elders as information sources had the greatest influence on knowledge scores. Having knowledge on rabies, receiving rabies information from family elders, and having non-agricultural employment greatly influenced attitude scores. Obtaining rabies information from family elders, and residing in urban areas and along the major highway of the city have the greatest effect on practice scores. These results emphasized the importance of effective rabies-related information dissemination for a successful rabies control program implementation.