Table 1.

Descriptive characteristics of the respondents

Characteristics	Affected (N = 596)	Unaffected (N = 1,188)	P value
% Male	15	13	0.149
% Ever gone to school	43	54	0.001
Mean age (SD)	33.91 (8.73)	31.32 (7.42)	0.001
Average household size (SD)	6.40 (1.93)	5.80 (1.73)	0.001
% Shoe-wearing status of index child, “all day every day”	31	20	0.001
% Respondents' perceived risk that index child will develop podoconiosis (scale: 0 [low] to 1 [high])	37	48	0.001
Mean strength of beliefs that podoconiosis is hereditary (scale: 0 [low] to 3 [high])	1.31 (0.9)	1.85 (0.92)	0.001
Mean strength of beliefs that podoconiosis is contagious (scale: 0 [low] to 2 [high])	1.27 (0.75)	1.67 (0.54)	0.001
Mean strength of belief that podoconiosis is both hereditary and contagious (scale: 0 [low] to 1 [high])	0.32 (0.47)	0.50 (0.50)	0.001
Mean accuracy of knowledge about podoconiosis (scale: 0 [low] to 5 [high])	2.43 (1.4)	1.47 (1.18)	0.001

SD = standard deviation.