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Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Prevention Barriers Related to Childhood Lead Poisoning Among Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese Parents in Northeast Ohio, United States

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Abstract

The study objectives were: (i) to develop and administer a survey to assess childhood lead poisoning (CLP) knowledge, attitudes, practices and prevention barriers (KAP-B) among the Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese (NSB) community in Northeast Ohio; and (ii) to examine the association between socio-demographic characteristics of NSB parents and their understanding of CLP as measured by the constructs of knowledge and attitudes. A Nepali language KAP-B questionnaire was developed and 200 NSB parents with at least one child ≤ 7 years of age from the Akron Metropolitan Area, Ohio were interviewed. NSB parents demonstrated a low level of knowledge about CLP prevention measures. While 82% lived in pre-1978 houses, only 27.5% perceived their house/neighborhood to be potentially lead contaminated. Only 33% of the parents reported understanding lead-related information provided by their child’s healthcare provider. Low-level CLP awareness among NSB community emphasizes a need for culturally tailored and linguistically appropriate community-level CLP educational intervention programs in this vulnerable community.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Akron Children’s Hospital, the New York State Health Department, and Summit County Public Health for providing pamphlets, coloring booklet, and stationery supplies to be distributed to children and their families who participated in the study. They would also like to acknowledge the help from Bhutanese American community members Mr. Leela Dhar Gajmer and Mr. Chandra L Ghimire in participant recruitment. The authors are grateful for the funding support for this study from the Akron Children’s Hospital Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Health, Kent State University, P.O. Box 5190, 44242-0001, Kent, OH, USA

    Sunita Shakya, Maggie Stedman-Smith & Madhav P. Bhatta

  2. Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron, OH, USA

    P. Cooper White

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  1. Sunita Shakya
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  2. Maggie Stedman-Smith
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Correspondence to Madhav P. Bhatta.

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Shakya, S., Stedman-Smith, M., White, P.C. et al. Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Prevention Barriers Related to Childhood Lead Poisoning Among Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese Parents in Northeast Ohio, United States. J Immigrant Minority Health 26, 351–360 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-023-01543-9

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