A study of the impact of health education inparted to school children on their knowledge, attitude and practice in regard to personal hygiene.

ABSTRACT

Education concerning prevailing health problems and the method of preventing and controlling them was considered to be one of the first eight essential activities in primary health care. Hence this study was attempted to assess the impact of health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of school children aged 10-14 years in two secondary schools situated in Burdwan District of West Bengal. For this purpose health education was imparted by a team consisting of Medical Officer and Paramedical staff. Education was given on personnel hygiene. The entire education programme was arranged in such a way that the course could be completed in six months time. The knowledge, attitude and practice status of the students was assessed before imparting training, twice during the training period at an interval of three months and finally after 9 months from the start of training. The evaluation was done with the help of scoring. The results indicated that the health knowledge of the student significantly improved after education. Attitude of the students towards personal hygiene also improved significantly after education. The practice of personal hygiene improved significantly as well. The present study also revealed that the improvement in health practice was not commensurating with the improvement of knowledge and attitude after education.