Citation

Shakya S, Stedman-Smith M, White PC, Bhatta MP. J. Immigr. Minor. Health 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10903-023-01543-9

PMID

37642886

Abstract

The study objectives were: (i) to develop and administer a survey to assess childhood lead poisoning (CLP) knowledge, attitudes, practices and prevention barriers (KAP-B) among the Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese (NSB) community in Northeast Ohio; and (ii) to examine the association between socio-demographic characteristics of NSB parents and their understanding of CLP as measured by the constructs of knowledge and attitudes. A Nepali language KAP-B questionnaire was developed and 200 NSB parents with at least one child ≤ 7 years of age from the Akron Metropolitan Area, Ohio were interviewed. NSB parents demonstrated a low level of knowledge about CLP prevention measures. While 82% lived in pre-1978 houses, only 27.5% perceived their house/neighborhood to be potentially lead contaminated. Only 33% of the parents reported understanding lead-related information provided by their child's healthcare provider. Low-level CLP awareness among NSB community emphasizes a need for culturally tailored and linguistically appropriate community-level CLP educational intervention programs in this vulnerable community.

Language: en

Keywords

Attitudes; Knowledge; Bhutanese refugees; Childhood lead poisoning; Practices; Prevention barriers