Knowledge and Practices regarding commonly occurring mosquito borne diseases among people of urban and rural areas of Rajkot District, Gujarat

Background: People’s knowledge and awareness towards the disease can help in the formation of the design of Behaviour Change Communication campaigns to influence acceptance and use of any control measures. Aims: To study the knowledge and practices regarding commonly occurring mosquito borne diseases among people of urban and rural areas of Rajkot District. Material and Methods: Multistage sampling method was used. Total 432 households, 216 each from urban and rural areas, were studied. Selection of areas was based on Annual Parasite Incidence. Six areas from urban and six talukas form rural areas were studied. Data were collected using a pretested semi structured questionnaire during the high transmission season (July 2011 to October 2011) of mosquito borne diseases. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analysis was done using Epi Info 6. Results: 87.96%respondents knew that mosquito transmits malaria.75.93% respondents did not know how dengue is transmitted. Fever (95.60%) and chills (71.06%) were the most common malaria symptoms told by respondents. 85.65%respondents were not knowing about dengue symptoms. 48.84% told joint pain as chikunguniya symptom. 90.05% respondents associated water collection to mosquito breeding place. 90.51% respondents knew that mosquito borne diseases can be prevented by using personal protective measures. 23.84% of the respondents did not use anything for prevention against mosquito bites. Conclusion: Knowledge regarding malaria was found satisfactory but knowledge regarding other mosquito borne diseases was unsatisfactory. Knowledge regarding prevention of mosquito borne disease was good and majority of the households were using preventive measures against mosquito bites.