Knowledge, attitudes and practices survey among health care workers and tuberculosis patients in Iraq

A cross-sectional study was made of 500 patients and 500 health care workers randomly selected from 250 primary health care centres throughout Iraq to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and practices towards tuberculosis (TB). Using structured questionnaire interviews, the study showed 64.4% of patients had good knowledge, while 54.8% had negative attitudes and practices towards TB. The 2 most important sources of patient information about TB were physicians and television. Of health care workers, 95.5% had good knowledge about TB and this was significantly associated with age and job duration. By contrast, health care workers' practice was poor: only 38.2% handled suspected TB cases correctly. The national TB programme in Iraq has had a good impact on knowledge of TB patients and health care workers.