rabies-related knowledge, attitudes, and practice among nomads in south khorasan, iran: a descriptive-correlational study

Background and objectives: rabies is among the oldest known zoonoses. it has a high mortality rate, particularly in developing countries and in rural areas. rabies prevention and management necessitates adequate information about public rabies-related knowledge and behavior. the present study was done to assess rabies-related knowledge, attitudes, and practice among nomads in south khorasan province, iran. methods: this cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2015 on 318 nomads. sampling was done through multi-stage sampling. a researcher-made 36-item instrument was used for data collection. the data were entered in the spss software (v. 16) and analyzed through the mann-whitney u, kruskal-wallis test, and spearman correlation analysis, at a significance level of less than 0.05. results: a large number of participants had limited knowledge (139 cases; 43.4%), negative attitudes (139 cases; 42.9%), and moderate- level practice (183 cases; 57.5%) regarding rabies. there were significant positive correlations between knowledge and attitudes (r = 0.58; p < 0.001), knowledge and practice (r = 0.58; p < 0.001), and attitudes and practice (r = 0.56; p < 0.001). moreover, rabies-related knowledge, attitudes, and practice had a significant relationship with age and educational status (p < 0.05). conclusions: this study showed that most nomads in south khorasan had poor rabies-related knowledge, attitudes, and practice. therefore, educational strategies are needed to improve their rabies-related knowledge, attitude, and practice, in order to prevent rabies.