Perception and behavioural intention towards dengue preventive practices among slum-dwellers in a municipality area of West Bengal: A qualitative study using Health Belief Model

Abstract

Objective: To explore perceptions and behavioural intentions towards dengue preventive practices (DPP) using the Health Belief Model (HBM) among slum dwellers in Berhampore Municipality, Murshidabad of India.
Methods: Our study, conducted in two selected slums of Berhampore between January and March 2024, explored varied perceptions and intentions in respect to six theoretical constructs: Perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefit and barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy with a phenomenological approach. The study participants were purposively selected adult slum dwellers (≥18 years), representing certain socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, occupation etc). After obtaining informed consent, each participant was interviewed with a priorly-framed in-depth interview guide based on six theoretical constructs of HBM. All in-depth interviews were also audio-taped. With 20 such interviews data saturation was reached, and content and thematic analysis was applied for presenting and interpreting the findings.
Results: Despite favorable perceptions of severity and benefits, the intention of those slum dwellers to adopt DPP remains below the desired level, with low perceived susceptibility to dengue, certain perceived barriers, and misconceptions likely being the reasons.
Conclusions: The nature and pattern of DPP among slum dwellers, along with prevailing perceptions and barriers, indicate that though participants were aware of dengue's severity and the benefits of prevention, they still remained unsure about taking necessary actions. This signifies the need to strengthen targeted interventions and apply participatory learning for action techniques.

Keywords

Dengue / Health Belief Model / Preventive practices / Slum-dwellers / Qualitative study / West Bengal

Conflict of interest statement

The authors claim there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the study participants for their patient cooperation during the interview procedure. We also acknowledge the support of health personnel in conducting the study.

Funding

The study receives no extramural funding.

Data availability statement

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Authors’ contributions

Roy AK, and Ghosh R conceptualized and developed the study design, reviewed the literatures, took part in proposal development, led the data collection and data entry, took part in data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing and review. Das DK conceptualized and developed the study design, took part in data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation and review. Akbar F took part in proposal development, manuscript preparation and review. All read and approved the final version of manuscript.

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