September 2023
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1 Citation
Journal of Public Health
This study aims to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of community health workers (CHWs) working in the eastern region of São Paulo, Brazil, regarding noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors, as a preliminary step toward training optimization. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey study with KAP questions on NCD risk factors, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cancer. CHWs working full-time in family health teams were invited to participate in the months of January and February 2019. Descriptive analyses were performed for all survey questions, and knowledge scores were calculated from the sum of correct answers to the knowledge questions. The survey was completed by 1071 CHWs (85% response rate). Most respondents were women and had less than five years of work experience. The mean overall knowledge score was 62%. The highest score was obtained for the CVD category (80.2%), and the lowest scores in the COPD (28%) and cervical cancer (32.9%) categories. The majority of CHWs considered diabetes as the most important NCD in their communities. At the practice level, CHWs reported being the most confident about their counseling on cervical and breast cancer screening, and the least confident about colon cancer screening. Several knowledge and practice gaps across different NCDs have been identified, which can inform the optimization of CHWs’ training and clinical activities in order to improve their effectiveness in preventing and managing NCDs in the Brazilian context.