Social Structure, Awareness and Practice on Risk of Exposure to Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases in Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya

Abstract

Human tick-borne diseases are generally neglected but they are expanding in scope and emerging asa significant public health problem. This study sought to determine relationship among socio-demographicfactors, awareness and practices in a rural community in Kenya towards ticks and human tick borne diseases. Across sectional study involving 307 respondents living within and around Ol-Pejeta Conservancy in LaikipiaCounty, Kenya was carried out using semi-structured questionnaire to survey the socio-economic factors, levelof awareness and practices surrounding ticks and tick-borne diseases. Data was analyzed using SPSS Version23 and the test statistics utilized was Chi-square. The results showed that the majority of the respondents(44.3%) belonged to (18- 30 years) age group. A proportion of 99.67% of the respondents positively identifieda tick while 97.4% were aware that ticks spread diseases to animals; however, the number drastically decreasedwhen asked if ticks spread diseases to humans at 67.7%. Many of the respondents (46.91%) mentioned tickfever as one of the human tick borne diseases. The most common symptom associated with tick bites in humanswas skin rashes at 71.7% followed by general weakness (43.0%) and muscle pain at 36.2%. Significant factorsassociated with awareness were level of education (2 – 31.337, P = 0.0001), occupation (2 - 22.592, p =0.031), location (2 – 12.699, P = 0.013) and gender (2 - 8.477, P = 0.016) while the significant factorassociated with good practice was occupation (2 - 23.340, P = 0.019). In summary, higher levels of education,gender and animal based occupations shaped the community awareness about ticks and tick borne diseases anddrove specific practices of prevention to tick bites and tick borne diseases. The respondents strongly advocatedfor public health awareness campaign, which should encourage gender participation to enhance communityawareness parity