Assessment of the Knowledge , Attitude and Practices of Rabies in Arada Sub City Addis Ababa , Ethiopia

This study was conducted from November, 2015 to April, 2016 in Arada sub-city which is one of the ten sub-cities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The sub-city covers area of 949.85 ha and has a population size of about 225,999 which makes it one of the densely populated sub-cities in Addis Ababa. The study is done in a cross-sectional study design and multistage sampling procedures were employed to select households for this study. Arada sub city were randomly selected from Addis Ababa. Three Administrative woreda were selected using lottery method from the list of Arada sub city, followed by selection of households from each woreda using systematic random sampling method. The data were collected from 384 households through face to face interview using pretested and structured questionnaires. SPSS Windows version 20.0 was used for data analysis. Descriptive statics techniques and Pearson’s chi squares analysis were used to manage the data and the association between outcome (KAP) and explanatory variables. Of the 384 respondents interviewed, 197 (51.3%) of them were males and 187 (48.7%) females and 154 (40.1%) were between 15-24 years old. The majority of the respondents 177 (46.1%) were Orthodox. Almost all of the respondents indicated that they had previously heard about rabies. The majority of the study participants 258 (67.2%) had good level of KAP. There was strong association between KAP scores and age (x = 12.860, p < 0.05); and occupation (x =16.232, p < 0.05). Generally, 2 2 these findings indicate that a good level of awareness was shown with regard to rabies among the residents of Arada sub city Addis Ababa. Additionally, inaccessibility to appropriate services was also considered as a major reason for the poor level of community participation in rabies but it need for educational outreach to raise accurate knowledge on mode of transmission, symptoms and appropriate prevention and treatment measures.