Factors Determining Non-compliance to Mass Drug Administration for Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination in Endemic Districts of Nepal
Abstract
Background: Background: Mass drug administration (MDA) has been implemented in Nepal since 2003 for elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis (LF). The objective of this study was to explore the factors that determine the noncompliance to MDA for Lymphatic Filariasis elimination in endemic districts of Nepal.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in three endemic districts namely Dhading, Kapilvastu and Kailali. A total of 900 people were interviewed with structured questionnaire.Â
Results: The result shows that the respondents who knew the DEC contains Albendazole (84.9% vs 42.5%, P<0.001, Adjusted OR=2.89(1.946-4.29) at 95% CI), who were aware of MDA campaign (78.2% vs 33.8% P<0.001, Adjusted OR=2.87(1.73-4.74) at 95% CI), who were visited by health workers at their home during MDA campaign (75.9% vs 24.1% P<0.001, Adjusted OR=4.85(2.448-9.594) at 95% CI) had significantly higher compliance. The respondents who had knowledge of side effects during MDA campaign had lower prevalence of noncompliance as compared who did not have (9.4% vs 33.2%, P<0.001).
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Conclusions: Advanced age, primary or below education, ever married, inadequate knowledge on drug, inadequate awareness on MDA, no home visit by health workers during MDA, no belief on MDA drugs were significantly associated with higher non-compliance to MDA. In future, MDA program should focus on awareness campaigns related to composition of drugs, side effects of drugs and compulsory home visit during the campaign.
Keywords: Lymphatic Filariasis; Mass drug administration; Non-compliance, NepalJournal of Nepal Health Research Council JNHRC allows to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles and allow readers to use them for any other lawful purpose. Copyright is retained by author. The JNHRC work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).