Cancer Related Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Among Community Health Care Providers and Health Assistants in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Cancer remains one of the primary causes of death in Bangladesh. The success of cancer control in rural areas depends on the ability of the health care system and workforce to identify and manage cases properly at early stages. Community Health Workers (CHW) can play a vital role in this process. The present study aims to assess cancer related Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) among 2 categories of CHWs - Community Health Care Providers (CHCP) and Health Assistants (HA) in rural Bangladesh. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire from July 2019 to June 2020. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to determine the sample. One Upazilla Health Complex (UHC) from each of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh were randomly chosen as study sites, from which 325 CHCPs and HAs were in the final sample. Multivariate logistic regression models were developed to determine the association between KAP scores and demographic variables. Results: Our study shows that a modest number of respondents scored above average in the knowledge (54.15%), attitude (58.15%), and practice (65.54%) sections. Majority CHCPs (90.91%) and HAs (96.06%) did not receive govt. training on cancer. Only 20.71% HAs and 25.2% CHCPs knew about the availability of cancer treatment options in Bangladesh. Uncertainty about the availability of relevant treatments or vaccinations at public facilities was also high. Having cancer in the family, income, duration of employment and workplace locations were important predictors of cancer related KAP scores. Conclusion: Healthcare workforce’s knowledge gap and unfavorable attitude towards cancer may result in poor delivery of care at the rural level. For many people in rural areas, CHCPs and HAs are the first point of contact with the healthcare system and thus effective cancer control strategies must consider them as key stakeholders. Targeted training programs must be adopted to address the cancer related KAP gaps among CHCPs and HAs.

Attitudes and Practice of Health Care Providers Toward Cancer Screening: A Cross-sectional Multicenter Study, Saudi Arabia

“…However, improved survival can be achieved through cancer prevention and early detection strategies. As a result, it is assumed that the new generation may have lower cancer rates in adulthood than in previous generations [6,7]. Achieving this goal requires a more interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach [6,7].…”

“…As a result, it is assumed that the new generation may have lower cancer rates in adulthood than in previous generations [6,7]. Achieving this goal requires a more interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach [6,7]. Many public and clinical health efforts are required to build a sustainable infrastructure to disseminate preventive measures for cancer control [3,5,6].…”

“…Achieving this goal requires a more interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach [6,7]. Many public and clinical health efforts are required to build a sustainable infrastructure to disseminate preventive measures for cancer control [3,5,6].…”

“…Screening is a cancer prevention measure for groups who are asymptomatic, and diagnosis is a medical test for groups who are symptomatic [2,6]. By the time the cancer symptoms appear, the cancer may have grown and spread; making it harder to treat or cure [8][9][10][11].…”

Analysis of Healthcare Seeking Behavior Among Patients Visiting Public Primary and Secondary Healthcare Facilities in an Urban Indian District

“…We briefly discuss previous work analyzing patient HSB in both international and Indian contexts. Previous studies primarily considered assessing behavior of patients with respect to diseases such as cancer (Habtu et al 2018; Mubin et al 2021), tuberculosis (Kaur et al 2013; Thomas et al 2021), oral diseases (Deolia et al 2020), asthma (Ndarukwa et al 2020), ante- and prenatal care (Shahabuddin et al 2017; Matsubara et al 2019), mental illness (Srivastava et al 2021), non-communicable diseases (Rasul et al 2019), diabetes (Low et al 2016), whiplash injury (Tenenbaum et al 2017), and HIV (Lafort et al 2016) among others. HSB was analyzed with respect to patient-related attributes such as gender (Thompson et al 2016; Kapoor et al 2019; Rana et al 2020) or a specific age group (Cho et al 2008; Shrivastava 2014; Srivastava et al 2021), rurality/urbanity (Nemet & Bailey, 2000; Herberholz & Phuntsho, 2018; Liu et al 2018; Liu et al 2019), marital status (Shahabuddin et al 2017), and socioeconomic status (Matsubara et al 2019).…”