Dinesh Pendharkar* and Garima Nirmal
India ranks second in sickle cell disease prevalence worldwide. Government has rolled out National Sickle Cell Anemia Elimination Mission 2023, aimed at prevention, early diagnosis and management, the knowledge of healthcare workers (HCW) is one of the most important drivers of healthcare interventions, especially when investigations and treatments are made accessible according to standard treatment guidelines. This study was undertaken to assess the extent of healthcare professionals’ knowledge of SCD. This was an observational cross-sectional study. The questionnaire was a slightly modified DFConhecimento instrument that was sent to the HCW using a web tool to be filled through a link. A total of 416 HCW participated in this survey. The median age of the participants was 34 years, and 190 (45.7%) were male. The majority had experience of working long-term in medical facilities-38.2% (159/416) had worked for more than 10 years. On assessing the knowledge, 52 (12.5%) had good (adequate) knowledge and 364 (87.5%) had poor (inadequate) knowledge. In the prevalent zone, only 14.7% of the HCW had adequate knowledge, and in the non-prevalent zone, only 2.6% had adequate knowledge. The study has attempted to cover major aspects related to the knowledge of healthcare professionals on sickle cell disease and conclusively established the inadequacy
of knowledge. This alarming situation requires urgent attention from all stakeholders. With the government rolling out a massive mission to eliminate SCD, the poor knowledge of healthcare workers is likely to serve as a major roadblock.
Published Date: 2024-02-19; Received Date: 2024-01-22
