Abstract:
Background: - Mental disorders account for five percent of the total burden of disease and
nineteen per cent of all disability in Africa. Approximately one out of four people in Africa may
experience what the World Health Organization refers to as Common mental disorders such as
anxiety or depression. In Ethiopia in general and no studies in Wolaita zone have been done to
assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards mental health among health care workers in
primary health care unit before. Therefore, this study was aimed to fill this research gaps and
assumed to give important information for program managers and health professionals.
Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice towards mental health among health care
workers in primary health care unit Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2016.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 264 health care workers from 21
health centers in Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia from February to April 2016.Structured
questionnaires were used to collect information from health care workers. The collected data
were entered in to Epi-data and exported to SPSS Version-16 for window and analyzed using
ordinary regression to determine predictors of knowledge, attitude and practice.
RESULT: A total of 264 health care workers were studied with a response rate of 94.9%.
The mean age of the respondents were 27.57 with SD of 5.47.majority of them were females
(52.3%), diplomas (53.8%), married (54.5%), Wolaita ethnic group (81.4%) and protestant
Christians (66.7%).Majority of study participant had low level of knowledge about mental illness
(52.3%).more than three out of ten (37.5%) of the respondent reported as a supernatural factors
were the causes of mental illness. Many of them (49.2%) expressed a negative attitude towards
mentally ill people. More than four out of ten (43.2%) reported either strongly agree 17.8% or
agree 25.4% with the stereotype that people with mental illness are dangerous. Majority (51.9%)
of study participant had poor practice. having experience of regular contact with mentally ill
people has been shown to be a potent factor in reducing stigmatizing attitudes.
Conclusion: in-service training pertaining to mental health problems should be given to HCWs
to change their low knowledge and negative views.
