Health education aspects related to urinary schistosomiasis among school children in rural Assiut

ABSTRACT

This study aims at measuring the awareness, knowledge, attitudes and practice related to urinary schistosomiasis of school attendants in rural Assiut and relating these health education aspects to the presence of mass media and to the laboratory finding of Schistosoma haematobium ova in urine. It was carried out in three villages in Manfalout district, Assiut Governorate. The study included 2251 pupils from the three study villages. They represented nearly all male pupils enrolled in the scholastic year 1989 - 1990 in all grades of the primary and preparatory schools. A questionnaire was designed and applied for all studied pupils together with urine parasitological examination. As regards the health education aspects related to urinary Schistosomiasis, the following was noticed About 90.7% of studied pupils were aware of the Schistosomiasis problem. Awareness gradually increased with grade from 66.5% in the 1st primary pupils up to 99.6% in the 2nd preparatory ones. About two third of studied pupils knew the main symptoms of urinary Schistosomiasis. Less than one third of studied pupils knew its complications. Most studied pupils [more than 80%] knew the relation between water contact behavior and the transmission of Schistosomiasis. Only 52.4% of studied pupils knew the relation between urinating in the water and Schistosomiasis. Number of worng attitudes were minimal for those related to drinking canals' water and ablution in canals while number of right answers were only about 64.2% for those attitudes related to playing in canals, 73% for those attitudes related to urination in canals and 62.8% for those related to urination during swimming. Practice generally worsened with increased grade. About 67.5% of studied pupils had water contact during field work in summer while 40.9% of them had water contact for playing. This indicates that the main cause of water contact may be field work and/or recreation. About 86.2% of studied pupils got their knowledge mainly from the TV. Only 2.8% of studied pupils got their information mainly from the school. The decreased role of school can be attributed to the lack of any knowledge about Science Book. TV played an important role as a tool for health education message, but its role limited to increase in awareness, dissemination of knowledge and minor positive attitudes change