Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Jinka University Students About Yellow Fever, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background

Yellow fever (YF) is endemic in South Omo area of Ethiopia. Although Jinka University (JKU) is located in South Omo Zone, there is no information regarding the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of students toward YF. The current study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of JKU students toward YF and factors associated with the overall knowledge and attitude about the disease.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, a semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from randomly selected regular program JNU students. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate associations of socio-demographic factors with overall knowledge and attitude scores.

Results

A total of 322 students (61.2% males, mean age of 20.7 years) participated in this study. Of these, 94.1% joined the University from places other than South Omo area and 86.0% (277/322) ever heard about YF. 9.6% were found to have a high level of overall knowledge about YF. High overall knowledge of YF was associated with being born and grown up in South Omo area (AOR=3.91; 95% CI: 1.28, 11.98) and being a student of a social science discipline (AOR=3.52; 95% CI: 1.22, 10.13). 48.8% of the participants had favorable overall attitude toward YF. Being a second-year student (AOR=1.96; 95% CI: 1.14–3.37), being born and grown up in South Omo area (AOR=5.13; 95% CI: 1.32–19.98), and having high overall knowledge of YF (AOR=13.24; 95% CI: 3.69, 47.44) were associated with favorable overall attitude toward YF. On the other hand, only 5.8% of the participants reported that they were vaccinated for YF.

Conclusion

The low level of knowledge and low vaccination coverage of JKU students to YF, especially among those students from other parts of the country, calls for urgent awareness creation during admission and making vaccination available.

Keywords:

• yellow fever
• knowledge
• attitude
• practice
• student
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the study participants, data collectors, and Jinka University for facilitating the data collection.

Abbreviations

YF, yellow fever; YFV, yellow fever virus; JKU, Jinka University; IRB, Institutional Review Board.

Data Sharing Statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

Author Contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests in this work.

Additional information

Funding

The study was financially supported by the Office of Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Addis Ababa University (Ref No. RD/PY662/2016). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.