Abstract:
Background: Knowledge, attitude and practice gaps are among the main challenges in providing quality basic health services to the urban community. This can be among the reasons for low tuberculosis case detection by urban health extension professionals. Identifying knowledge, attitude and practice gaps and associated factors, and taking active measures towards the gaps could improve tuberculosis case detection. Objective: - To assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of urban health extension professionals towards tuberculosis case detection and associated factors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: - A cross-sectional study design was used from April to May 2019 in randomly selected four sub-cities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Data was collected from 402 study participants using structured questionnaire. Epi info version 7 was used for data entry and SPSS version 20 software for data analyses. To identify variables which have significant association with the outcome variables, multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed. The statistical significant was determined by adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval. Result: - This study showed that 56.2 of the respondents have good knowledge, 58.5% good attitude and 52% good practice towards tuberculosis case detection. Age group of 25-34 years old and frequency of supportive supervision on weekly basis are significantly associated with good knowledge with p-value of 0.008[AOR=2.487, (95% CI =1.265-4.888)] and p-value of 0.006[AOR=2.911, (95% CI=1.361-6.225)] respectively. Similarly getting referral feedbacks from the catchment health centres is significantly associated with the good practice of the study respondents with p-value of 0.001[AOR=3.526, (95% CI=1.665-7.467). Conclusion: - This study reveals that half of the urban health extension professionals have a good knowledge, attitude and practice which is relatively not satisfactory to provide good quality services to the urban community. Interventions that boost the knowledge, attitude and practice level of them should be implemented including frequent supportive supervision, providing referral feedback timely from the health centers and engaging family members in supporting tuberculosis patients.