A study to determine the effectiveness of health education on knowledge of dengue fever and preventive measures among high school students in a selected private school, Malaysia

Abstract

Background: Dengue fever is a global concern in subtropical and tropical countries as a total of 75,795 dengue cases with 212 deaths has been reported in Malaysia from January to August 2015; 26.8% higher compared with the report in 2014 (WHO, 2015). This study aimed to determine the knowledge on dengue fever and preventive measures before and after health education among high school students. Methods: Quasi-experimental one group pre-test post-test research design was used in this study. Nonprobability convenient sampling was used to choose 63 subjects in the pre-test and 60 subjects in the post-test. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient measured was 0.7. Results: Generally, all subjects knew about dengue fever but they had brief understanding about dengue causes, sign and symptoms, mode of transmission and preventive measures. The level of knowledge on dengue fever and preventive measures among high school students before health education was (M=60.44, SD=23.087) and after health education (M=76.55, SD=15.508). There was a significant difference statistically in the scores with p-value <0.05 with the confidence interval (CI) (54.48, 66.41) and (72.54, 80.55) respectively. Conclusions: School students could be the additional resources and mediators to plead for meticulous dengue fever preventive measures. Hence, health education in the high school level is necessary.