Gayle Allawan | Riezle Cate B. Angel | Marjhun G. Bomogao | Kathleen Dela Pena | Alpha Joy L. Martin | Jennievive C. Pulas
School of Natural Sciences
ABSTRACT
Home gardening has become a trend to Baguio City plant enthusiasts ever since the pandemic brought about by SARS-COV2 starting in 2019. However, soil-related activities have been associated with the risk of acquiring soil-transmitted helminths infection. An online survey was conducted among 104 plant enthusiasts (18-60 years of age) from Baguio City to assess their knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) regarding soil-transmitted helminths (STH) infection, precisely length of experience in handling plants, and type of plants they are growing. According to the results, the long-term experienced plant enthusiasts had a good level of KAP on STH infection, while the short-term plant enthusiasts yielded poor knowledge. The respondents had an overall positive attitude and good practices towards soil-transmitted helminths infection. T-test for independent samples revealed a significant difference in the level of knowledge based on the length of experience of the respondents in handling plants. Meanwhile, there was no statistically significant difference between the attitude and practices of the respondents based on their length of experience in handling plants. In addition, there were no significant differences observed between the means of individual KAP based on the type of plant that respondents were growing using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Thus, it is necessary to conduct a city-wide intervention focusing solely on the weaker areas indicated by their KAP, including the use of black soil as a potential STH source, types of STH in soil, and working near pet or animal stool.
Keywords: Plant enthusiasts, Soil-transmitted Helminths, Knowledge, Attitude, Practices
