IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pntd00/0010744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Southwestern national park service employee risk, knowledge, and concern for triatomine exposure: A qualitative analysis using a novel knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Alvarado
  • Emily M Mader
  • Danielle Buttke
  • Laura C Harrington

Abstract

Chagas disease (CD), caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is a neglected parasitic infection in the United States (US). In the Southwestern US, National Park Service (NPS) employees are a unique population with potential exposure to CD. This population lives in close contact with several species of sylvatic triatomine bugs, the vectors of T. cruzi, that may enter residential buildings at night. Despite the higher potential risk of CD transmission for southwestern NPS employees, the socio-cultural factors that impact autochthonous CD transmission in the US remain unknown. To address this gap, we investigated how NPS employee knowledge and attitudes impact their triatomine preventive behaviors. We distributed a 42-item online questionnaire to NPS employees at four national parks in Arizona and Texas. We detected high self-reported bite exposure in NPS housing, despite moderate- to high-frequency of prevention behaviors. Specific behaviors, such as often or always repairing window screens, were associated with a decreased risk of putative triatomine bug exposure. Additionally, NPS employees had low knowledge of CD. For those with greater knowledge of CD, it was not associated with increased frequency of prevention behavior. We found that increased CD anxiety was associated with increased personal agency to reduce the risk of CD. These results demonstrate the influence of knowledge and attitudes regarding CD on triatomine prevention behavior within a potential high-risk population in the US, and the importance of utilizing strategies beyond provision of education to influence behaviors.Author summary: Chagas disease (CD), a neglected vector-borne disease, negatively impacts 300,000 United States citizens in present time. The parasite that causes CD, Trypanosoma cruzi, is spread through the infected feces of triatomine bugs. Vector-borne transmission risk is considered highest in the southwestern United States, where there is greater triatomine diversity. Southwestern National Park Service (NPS) employees are a unique population regarding human-CD risk because they live in close contact with several species of triatomines. However, CD transmission does not solely result from biological factors; sociocultural factors, including what human populations understand and what they do in response to a disease, are integral for vector-borne agent spread. Therefore, we investigated how NPS employee knowledge and attitudes impact their triatomine preventive behaviors. We detected high self-reported triatomine bug bite exposure in southwestern national parks. Additionally, NPS employees overall had low knowledge of CD, but greater knowledge of CD was not associated with better practices. Human emotions, behavior, and environmental factors are deeply rooted within the CD transmission cycle. This research adds to the growing body of literature on the CD knowledge, attitudes, and practices of a high-risk population in the US.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Alvarado & Emily M Mader & Danielle Buttke & Laura C Harrington, 2022. "Southwestern national park service employee risk, knowledge, and concern for triatomine exposure: A qualitative analysis using a novel knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pntd00:0010744
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010744
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0010744
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0010744&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010744?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wickham, Hadley, 2007. "Reshaping Data with the reshape Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 21(i12).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Augustinus, Benno A. & Blum, Moshe & Citterio, Sandra & Gentili, Rodolfo & Helman, David & Nestel, David & Schaffner, Urs & Müller-Schärer, Heinz & Lensky, Itamar M., 2022. "Ground-truthing predictions of a demographic model driven by land surface temperatures with a weed biocontrol cage experiment," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 466(C).
    2. Julio Cesar Alonso Cifuentes & Jaime Andres Carabali, 2019. "Breve Tuturial para visualizar y Calcular Métricas de Redes (grafos) en R (para Económisas)," Icesi Economics Lecture Notes 18170, Universidad Icesi.
    3. Miller, Christine M.F. & Waterhouse, Hannah & Harter, Thomas & Fadel, James G. & Meyer, Deanne, 2020. "Quantifying the uncertainty in nitrogen application and groundwater nitrate leaching in manure based cropping systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Sarlas, Georgios & Páez, Antonio & Axhausen, Kay W., 2020. "Betweenness-accessibility: Estimating impacts of accessibility on networks," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Marin FOTACHE & Florin DUMITRU & Valerica GREAVU-SERBAN, 2015. "An Information Systems Master Programme in Romania. Some Commonalities and Specificities," Informatica Economica, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(3), pages 5-18.
    6. Ayken Askapuli & Miguel Vilar & Humberto Garcia-Ortiz & Maxat Zhabagin & Zhaxylyk Sabitov & Ainur Akilzhanova & Erlan Ramanculov & Uli Schamiloglu & Angelica Martinez-Hernandez & Cecilia Contreras-Cub, 2022. "Kazak mitochondrial genomes provide insights into the human population history of Central Eurasia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(11), pages 1-32, November.
    7. Martijn Van Heel & Dinska Van Gucht & Koen Vanbrabant & Frank Baeyens, 2017. "The Importance of Conditioned Stimuli in Cigarette and E-Cigarette Craving Reduction by E-Cigarettes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Sean McKenzie & Hilary Parkinson & Jane Mangold & Mary Burrows & Selena Ahmed & Fabian Menalled, 2018. "Perceptions, Experiences, and Priorities Supporting Agroecosystem Management Decisions Differ among Agricultural Producers, Consultants, and Researchers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Milad Abbasiharofteh & Tom Broekel, 2021. "Still in the shadow of the wall? The case of the Berlin biotechnology cluster," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(1), pages 73-94, February.
    10. Martín Alfredo Legarreta-González & César A. Meza-Herrera & Rafael Rodríguez-Martínez & Darithsa Loya-González & Carlos Servando Chávez-Tiznado & Viridiana Contreras-Villarreal & Francisco Gerardo Vél, 2024. "Selecting a Time-Series Model to Predict Drinking Water Extraction in a Semi-Arid Region in Chihuahua, Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-22, November.
    11. Jill F. Lundell & Brennan Bean & Jürgen Symanzik, 2023. "Let’s talk about the weather: a cluster-based approach to weather forecast accuracy," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 1135-1155, September.
    12. Andee J. Kaplan & Eric R. Hare, 2019. "Putting down roots: a graphical exploration of community attachment," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 1449-1464, December.
    13. Sarah E. Harris & Maria S. Alexis & Gilbert Giri & Francisco F. Cavazos & Yue Hu & Jernej Murn & Maria M. Aleman & Christopher B. Burge & Daniel Dominguez, 2024. "Understanding species-specific and conserved RNA-protein interactions in vivo and in vitro," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Haider, Saira M. & Benscoter, Allison M. & Pearlstine, Leonard & D'Acunto, Laura E. & Romañach, Stephanie S., 2021. "Landscape-scale drivers of endangered Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow (Ammospiza maritima mirabilis) presence using an ensemble modeling approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 461(C).
    15. Senka Čaušević & Manupriyam Dubey & Marian Morales & Guillem Salazar & Vladimir Sentchilo & Nicolas Carraro & Hans-Joachim Ruscheweyh & Shinichi Sunagawa & Jan Roelof van der Meer, 2024. "Niche availability and competitive loss by facilitation control proliferation of bacterial strains intended for soil microbiome interventions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    16. Fox, John & Carvalho, Marilia S., 2012. "The RcmdrPlugin.survival Package: Extending the R Commander Interface to Survival Analysis," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 49(i07).
    17. C. J. Torrecilla-Salinas & O. Troyer & M. J. Escalona & M. Mejías, 2019. "A Delphi-based expert judgment method applied to the validation of a mature Agile framework for Web development projects," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 9-40, March.
    18. Priyanga Dilini Talagala & Rob J Hyndman & Kate Smith-Miles & Sevvandi Kandanaarachchi & Mario A Munoz, 2018. "Anomaly detection in streaming nonstationary temporal data," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 4/18, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    19. Thelma Dede Baddoo & Zhijia Li & Yiqing Guan & Kenneth Rodolphe Chabi Boni & Isaac Kwesi Nooni, 2020. "Data-Driven Modeling and the Influence of Objective Function Selection on Model Performance in Limited Data Regions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-26, June.
    20. Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta & Seraina L. Cappelli & Rashmi Shrestha & Stephanie Gerin & Annalea K. Lohila & Jussi Heinonsalo & Daniel B. Nelson & Ansgar Kahmen & Pengpeng Duan & David Sebag & Eric Verrecc, 2024. "Plant diversity drives positive microbial associations in the rhizosphere enhancing carbon use efficiency in agricultural soils," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pntd00:0010744. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosntds (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.