Effect of Nutrition Health and Hygiene Education on Knowledge Attitude and Practices KAP among Selected Transgender Community

Abstract

The Transgender (TG) community has been steadily growing over the decades, yet they face a unique set of challenges. Apart from communicable diseases many transgenders suffer from nutrition deficiency associated non communicable diseases, which decreases the quality of living. The purpose of this study was to examine how nutritional, health and hygiene education influences the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of the TG population. The participants were TG individuals over 18 years old. TG individuals visiting ESI hospital Gulbarga and few TG from Bengaluru city were selected for the research. A total of 300 TG individuals were initially screened, out of which 120 were selected for the study. The study comprised administering a detailed socio-economic demographic questionnaire, pre-KAP questionnaire, conducting an awareness program with distribution of education material, and then having a gap period of 60 days a post-KAP assessment was done. The results were statistically analysed, before the awareness session (Group I), the majority of participants (60.83%) were categorized as having "Poor" knowledge, only (7.5%) had "Good" knowledge, after the awareness session (Group II), there was a significant improvement in knowledge levels. The percentage of participants with "Poor" knowledge decreased drastically to only 1.67%, with "Good" knowledge increased to 36.67%. Before the awareness session (Group I), the majority of TG participants (66.67%) held "Unfavourable" attitudes, a smaller percentage (24.17%) held "Neutral" attitudes, the least common attitude was "Favourable," held by 9.17% of participants. After the awareness session (Group II), there was a noticeable shift in attitudes. The percentage of participants with "Unfavourable" attitudes decreased dramatically to only 2.50%, with "Neutral" attitudes increased substantially to 67.50%, similarly, with "Favourable" attitudes increased to 30.00%. Before the intervention (Group I), the majority of participants (70.83%) exhibited "Poor" practices. After the intervention (Group II), "Poor" practices decreased to 7.50%, with "Average" practices increased substantially to 65.83%, similarly, with "Good" practices increased to 26.67%. Rank correlation between pre and post KAP and socioeconomic domains had significant association These findings suggest that educational qualification, family size, facilities available, are important factors associated with knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding the subject under study.