Identification, Knowledge, and Awareness of Students about Bed Bug in Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Background: The bed bugs are nuisance public health pests that widely distributed worldwide, and normally adapted to live in close associated with human such as houses, hotels, hospitals, movie theaters, dormitories and office buildings.Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the identification, knowledge and awareness of students about bed bug prevention and control in Kerman University of medical sciences.Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from February to June 2019 among students in Kerman University of medical sciences. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and interview was conducted by a well briefed team of vector biology and control students. Also, in this study for precisely identification of bed bug a dead one showed to the participants. Collected data were analyzed with SPSS version 22.Results: Totally, 200 students took part in this survey. The results showed that, the mean of age of participants in the study was 22.68 ± 2.8 and 73% of participants were male. The findings showed that, most of students (75%) couldn’t identify the intended insect correctly.Totally, 15% of students had good knowledge and 45.5% had moderate knowledge about the prevention and control of the bed bug infestation. Knowledge of girls was higher than boys (p<0.0001). The habitat of bed bug was recognized by 45% of students. The results revealed that 94% of students were very concerned about bed bug infestation in their dormitory.Conclusion: The knowledge and awareness of students in this survey about bed bug were weak. Given that, the bed bugs exist in the students dormitories, it is suggested to perform educational program in order to improve the students knowledge and awareness level about bed bug health importance in Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Keywords:

Bed bug , Urban Pest , Nuisance Pest , Knowledge , Medical Sciences Students