Factors relating to receiving post exposure rabies vaccine among vaccine users: a case study in Kantharom District, Si Sa Ket Province

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey research aimed to examine factors related to receiving Post Exposure Rabies Vaccine among Vaccine Users in Kantharom District, Si Sa Ket Province. The 335 samples were randomly selected and interviewed by structure questionnaire.

The results show that 50.4% of people receiving rabies vaccine after exposure are female. The average age is 44.46 years old. Most of them (54.3%) are married. In terms of education, 35.2% of them were graduated from high school. Most of them (32.8%) are farmers and the average income is 7,198.31 baht. 30.1% of the samples are in the 30-Baht Welfare Scheme. The average distance from home to hospital is 11.12 km. The kind of animals that they were mostly exposed to is dogs (77.6%) and 73.4% of them did not know the history of rabies vaccination of the animals. Most of the patients receiving the service (62.4%) were in the WHO rabies exposure category3. The knowledge, attitude, perception of rabies and Reinforcing factors of the patients were in moderate level. Enabling factors of the patients were in high level. The factor related to vaccine adherence that is statistically significant is knowledge (c²=9.276, p<0.05). The statistically significant factors related to cleaning of Post-exposure wounds include sex, age, education, occupation, income, medical welfare scheme, kind of animal exposed to, WHO rabies exposure category, knowledge, attitude and Reinforcing factors.

This research suggests that people should be educated about rabies, with emphasis on the species of animals that can be infected with the disease and the need to trap the animals after exposure. Furthermore, people should know that they can reduce the amount of germs entering the body by washing the wound.