Awareness and Knowledge of Health Care Workers at Dots Facilities on the Management of Tuberculosis in Lagos, Nigeria: A Public - Private Comparison

Background: The success of the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) strategy depends on the ability of the health-care system to identify and follow-up tuberculosis (TB) suspects. This study compared the knowledge of private and public DOTS providers in Lagos State Nigeria regarding the symptoms and management of TB.

Methods: A descriptive comparative cross sectional study was conducted between July to October 2012. Knowledge of 84 health workers (64 from public DOTS facilities and 20 from private DOTS facilities) from 34 randomly selected DOTS facilities under the Lagos State TB and leprosy control programme was assessed. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 19 was used for analysis.

Results: The mean age of the health workers at the public DOTS facilities was significantly higher (42.8±7.0 years) than those at the private DOTS facilities (37.3±5.1 years) (P = 0.002). Doctors constituted about 36% and 15% of health workers at the public and private DOTS facilities respectively. A significantly higher proportion of health workers at the private DOTS facilities (35.0%) had poor knowledge of TB management compared with those (10.9%) at the public DOTS facilities (P = 0.03). However, a higher proportion (85.9% vs 60.0%) of health workers that had fair knowledge of TB management were from the public DOTS facilities (P= 0.02) while 3.1% and 5% of health workers that had good knowledge were from the private and public DOTS facilities respectively.

Conclusion: There is an urgent need to develop effective strategies to improve the capacity of healthcare providers in both private and public DOTS facilities in Lagos State, Nigeria.