Medicina Comunitária e Educação em Saúde

Abstrato

The Effect of Participatory School Health Promotion Model on Knowledge and Practices of Rural School Children of Wardha, Maharashtra

Ingole AN1, Maliye CH, Bharambe MS, Mehendale AM and Garg BS

Background: Involvements of parents and teachers have a superior role in imparting health education to school children. In the present study, an attempt has been made to find out impact of the “school health promotion program” with involvement of parents, teachers and a health agency on personal hygiene and related morbidities for the first time among the rural schools of Wardha district. Material and methods: The study was undertaken in the three government and two private schools in RHTC, Bhidi, MGIMS. “School Health Education Program” with emphasis on improvement in personal hygiene and health related practices of school children was started. No sampling technique was applied for selection of students as all the students in the age group of 10-15 years were included. In August 2010, the baseline health check-up of 470 children and an end line assessment was carried out after one year in March 2011. The planned health education sessions were conducted once a week in the schools. Data was entered and analysed using Epi Info (version 6.04d) software package. Results: The knowledge among students and practices compared before and after imparting health education sessions using Z test for difference between two proportions revealed significant change. Conclusion: The school health promotion program with the active involvement of school teachers leads to improvement in personal hygiene in school children and reduction in related morbidities.