Department of Bio-Medical Laboratory Science and Management (U.G.C Innovative Department) Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721 102, West Bengal, India.
Online published on 19 November, 2012.
Children are the most important natural resource of our community. Their survival, protection and development are the prerequisite for the future development of humanity. The present study explored the school-based, preventive approach of diseases and also evaluates the acceptability and effectiveness of health awareness programme of secondary schoolers. The programme was organized in the three rural secondary schools of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal from April 2009 to December 2009. Eight hundred twenty seven school students from VII to IX standard (age group 10–15 years) were included in the study. The study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of school students at rural sectors before and after the delivery of awareness package regarding communicable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and cholera by questionnaire method. The study showed that majority of the participants had poor knowledge regarding the concerned diseases at pre-awareness stage. Poor health knowledge of students may be due to their less exposure to different health awareness programmes. An informative and attractive awareness package was formulated covering the various domains of diseases such as the cause, symptoms, mode of infection and prevention of above diseases. Poster, visual presentation, group discussions were used to aware and educate the participants. After disseminating health awareness package, significant change in the knowledge, attitude and practice of participants were assessed regarding malaria (p ≤ 0.05), tuberculosis (p ≤ 0.05), diarrhoea (p ≤ 0.05) and cholera (p ≤ 0.05). Thus, comprehensive health awareness package is effective in to improve the KAP of rural school students.
Health Awareness, School Children, Communicable diseases, KAP
