Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. It affects both children and adults but mostly children. . Asthma is a major non communicable disease (NCD), affecting both children and adults. Asthma affected an estimated 262 million people in 2019 and caused 461,000 deaths worldwide. It is the most common chronic disease among children. Most asthma-related deaths occur in low and middle income countries constituting 80%, where under- diagnosis and under- treatment is a challenge. Asthma prevalence has been increasing across Africa. In 1990, about 11.7% (74 million including 34.1 million children) of the population had asthma, by 2010 this has increased to 12.8% (119million including 49.7million children). Asthmatic attacks may be preventable if parents know precipitating factors and put into practice asthmatic attacks prevention interventions.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of knowledge, attitude towards and practices on asthma among the general population in Nyamagana- Mwanza.

METHODOLOGY: It was a cross sectional study and a community based study that was conducted at Nyamagana district from February 2023 to June 2023.
RESULTS: The study had shown that the overall level of knowledge was moderate 96 (34.3%) to excellent 83 (29.6%) manifested by participant’s responses as majority could identify the symptoms of asthma such as chest discomfort (55.7%), rapid breathing (42.5), noisy breathing (49.3%), cough (43.2), speech difficulties during an asthma attack (61.8%). Also majority were able to identify the precipitants of asthma such as exposure to cold (48.6%), dust (52.5%) and perfumes (57.9%). Generally, the overall attitude towards asthma was negative. The study had shown that majority of those who participated 125 (44.6%) had poor practices, 70 (25%) had excellent practices, and 85 (30.4%) had good practices.

CONCLUSION: The level of knowledge was moderate to excellent, attitude was negative. The overall practice was poor.

RECOMMENDATION: Health education should be provided to the community so that to increase knowledge and awareness of asthma so that the community should not have misconceptions on asthma.