Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC202570 (Poster 138) | Published:  06 Aug 2025

Household hygiene practices and knowledge of Lassa Fever: a comparative study between rural and urban areas in Ondo state

Olalekan Wasiu Adebimpe1, Olatunde Ademoye Falusi1,&

1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, Nigeria

&Corresponding author: Olatunde Ademoye Falusi, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, Nigeria. Email: falusiolatunde@gmail.com

Received: 02 May 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 06 Aug 2025

Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

This is part of the Proceedings of the ECOWAS 2nd Lassa fever International Conference in Abidjan, September 8 – 11, 2025

Keywords: Lassa fever, Knowledge, Practice and Good hygiene

©Olalekan Wasiu Adebimpe et al Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cite this article: Olalekan Wasiu Adebimpe et al Household hygiene practices and knowledge of Lassa Fever: a comparative study between rural and urban areas in Ondo state. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc):00282. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00282

Introduction

Ondo State recently took over as the epicenter of Lassa Fever infections in Nigeria. Several community household practices could lead to an increase in disease transmission, necessitating a study to assess and compare household hygiene preventive practices and knowledge of Lassa fever among rural and urban dwellers in Ondo State.

Methods

This is a descriptive cross-sectional comparative study. Data was collected using semi structured interviewer administered and pretested questionnaires. Multistage sampling was used to select 621 community respondents. The data collected was analysed using SPSS software. 

Results

All respondents from urban and 98% of rural areas respondents were aware of the disease. Overall good knowledge score was 100%for urban and 33.3% among rural areas respondents (p< 0.05). About 47.2% of urban and 29.3% of rural respondents had good hygiene practices (p< 0.05). Urban respondents were 1.9 times more likely to have good knowledge compared to rural respondents (p< 0.05). Rural respondents were 1.6 times more likely to have a good hygiene practice compared to urban respondents (p>0.05).

Conclusion

Gaps in household hygiene practices and knowledge were observed, with poorer gaps in rural, suggesting a need for a sustained state-wide health promotion programmes, to translate knowledge into good preventive practices.

 
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Keywords

  • Lassa fever
  • Knowledge
  • Practice and Good hygiene
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