Analysis on competency assessment for identifying parasite in Hainan Province

Wenjuan Liang^1*Guangda Xu¹Xiaomin Huang²Rongguang Zhang¹Yuchun Li²

• ¹Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
• ²Hainan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Haikou, Hainan Province, China

Objective This study aimed to assess both theoretic knowledge proficiency and practical skills among practitioners specializing in parasitic diseases within Hainan province, providing essential groundwork for ongoing capacity enhancement efforts.Methods A cross-sectional study with a two-stage stratified random samplingwas conducted in Hainan province. City or county-level representatives from centers for disease control/institutes as well as medical institutions focusing on parasitic diseases participated in this subnational assessment process. They were evaluated across several key areas, including theoretical knowledge, smear sample examination, and microscopic identification, with a specific focus on Plasmodium species and parasite eggs.Result: Fifty-four county-level representatives participated in this study, with twenty-three from forty-one CDCs and thirty-one from medical institutes. Significant differences were observed in theoretical knowledge scores across various parasitic species (χ 2 =81.563, P<0.001), with Plasmodium spp achieving the highest score at 82.22%, while other species scored lowest at 53.31%. The average scores for malaria blood films and modified Kato-Katz smears were reported as 6.39±2.35 and 9.13±1.54, respectively. The radar chart revealed that blood film staining had the lowest scoring rate at 41.96%, while extruded film had the highest at 86.16%.Significant difference were also found among different Plasmodium species (χ 2 =35.161; P <0.001), with Plasmodium ovale recording the lowest score of 0.00%.The eggs of roundworm had the highest positive detection rate at 82.61%, whereas eggs of Schistosoma japonicum had the lowest at 5.89%. Furthermore, women outperformed men in total scores, smears, and microscopic examinations (P <0.05) while results indicated higher performance in Eastern regions compared to Western ones (P = 0.039). According their overall scores, 14.8% of participant achieved certification at Level 1 while 54.9% attained Level 2.These findings underscore an ongoing necessity to bolster both theoretical understanding and skill proficiencies related to parasitic diseases-particularly regarding malaria blood smear analysis, detection of Plasmodium ovale, and identification of eggs of schistosoma japonicum within the men and western Hainan's practitioner community.