ABSTRACT

This study assesses community health awareness and health education on diphtheria among residents of a local government area in Benin City, Edo State. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated for the study. The population of the study comprised of 117,209 from which a sample of 399 was selected for the study. A cross sectional descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysis carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics and hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. Reliability coefficients of 0.84 and 0.79 were obtained for awareness and health  education respectively. Results revealed low awareness on diphtheria among majority (73.5%), 24.1% had moderate awareness, 2.0% had high awareness. 93.5% claimed there had never been community awareness campaign on diphtheria in their community, 85.7% reported never to have attended seminar/health talks on diphtheria infection. Level of education on diphtheria was low (21.2%). Majority of the respondents (61.4%) had low level of education on diphtheria. Gender and educational background were significantly associated with community health awareness on diphtheria (p = .000). The study concluded that the level of community health awareness and education was low among the population. It recommended that nursing practitioners should consider community health awareness campaign on diphtheria in communities in other to raise awareness and targeting females and those with low educational background, members of the society should ensure to observe and seek information on diphtheria in other to protect their health and avoid adverse outcome association with contracting diphtheria.