Int. J. One Health Vol.8 Article-4
Research Article
International Journal of One Health, 8(1): 34-42
https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2022.34-42
Knowledge and perception of veterinary students on One Health: A first nationwide multi-institutional survey in Nepal
2. Faculty of Animal Science, Veterinary Science and Fisheries, Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, Nepal.
3. School of Public Health, Chitwan Medical College, Chitwan, Nepal.
4. Faculty of Veterinary Science, Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences Technology, Purbanchal University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
5. Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Background and Aim: One Health (OH) is a collaborative, multisectoral, and holistic approach for the prevention and control of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases affecting animals and humans. In Nepal, the OH concept remains rudimentary. However, the recently formed "One Health Strategy" is a ray of hope. Veterinary students are the future of animal health, a major component of OH. This study aimed to determine the knowledge and perception of Nepalese veterinary students toward OH.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among veterinary students in all four veterinary colleges in Nepal to obtain knowledge on OH and zoonotic disease and understand the perception of the benefits of OH obtained using an online survey tool through a convenience sampling technique. Data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics, Chi-Square test, and logistic regression analysis.
Results: A total of 333 participants, including recent graduates (mean age: 22.3±2.2 years) participated in this study. The mean knowledge score was 19.8±3.8 and about half of the respondents, 185 (55.6%) demonstrated satisfactory scores on OH. Most of the respondents have a positive perception of the benefits of OH as participants largely agreed that the OH approach needs to become a regular, routine, and institutionalized process at the project, program, and policy levels; is useful in addressing complex challenges that threaten human and animal health, food security, poverty, and the environments where diseases flourish; and it creates added value in terms of human and animal health, financial savings or social and environmental benefits from closer professional cooperation. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that age, educational, and academic levels were significant factors influencing satisfactory knowledge on OH among respondents.
Conclusion: Nepalese veterinary students demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of OH and a good level of perception of the benefits of OH. An apprehensive understanding of the current status of the OH approach in Nepal through studies like this is crucial for the future improvement of public and animal health. Keywords: knowledge, Nepal, One Health, veterinary students.
Keywords: knowledge, Nepal, One Health, veterinary students.
Received: 28-10-2021 Accepted: 15-02-2022 Published online: 21-04-2022
Corresponding author: Deepak Subedi E-mail: subedideepu26@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2022.34-42
Copyright: Subedi, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.