Scabies infestation, the immediate and delayed impact of intervention by family health education

ABSTRACT

A community based intervention study was carried out in Fanara, village in Ismailia. The aim of the study was to introduce a health education program for patients with scabies and their families to evaluate the immediate and long-term impact of this intervention with assessment of cure and recurrence rates.Scabies patients were allocated randomly into two groups. One exposed to both drug therapy and family health education program, the other group received only drug therapy. Immediate impact showed that intervention groups had significant change in knowledge, beIiefs and practices, with higher cure rate than the other group [90%, 65% respectively]. Two months after intervention, the recurrence rate was lower among the intervention group [28%] than among the other group [39%]. For detection the long term impact, one year after intervention, re-evaluation was done, a significant positive change in the most of patient's knowledge, beliefs and practices was detected among the intervention group with higher cure rate The study concluded that family health education have a significant role in improving the prevention and cure of scabies