Effect of Health Educational Program on Mothers’ Knowledge and Practices RegardingCare of Children with Trachoma

Abstract

Background: Trachoma is an infectious disease; it begins in early childhood with repeated infection of the conjunctiva by Chlamydia trachomatis, Trachoma occurs in areas with poor personal and family hygiene. Trachoma spreads easily, primarily from child to child and from child to caregiver. Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the effect of health educational program on mothers' knowledge and practices regarding care of children with trachoma. Study design: quasi-experimental design (pretest-posttest) used to conduct this study. Sample: The study sample includes 60 mothers caring for children with trachoma. Setting: This study was conducted at outpatient Ophthalmological clinics at Minia University hospital and ophthalmology hospital in Minia City .Tools: Three tools were utilized in this study; the first tool was an interviewing structured questionnaire sheet. The second tool: Mothers' knowledge regarding trachoma, and the third tool: self-reported practices scale. Results the minority (5%) of the studied mothers had high level of knowledge pre-educational program that increased to most (91.7%) of them immediately after the end of the educational program and a majority (88.3%) of them after one month of educational program with statistically significant differences. More than one third (41.7%) of them had good self-reported practices level pre-educational program increased to most (91.7%) of them immediately after the end of the educational program and more than majority (88.3%) of them after one month of an educational program with a highly statistically significant difference. Also, there was a strong positive association between mothers' knowledge and their reported practices regarding trachoma at pre-educational program. Conclusion: The teaching program is effective in improving the knowledge and practices of mother , it found that levels of knowledge and practices of mother's posttest were significantly higher compared to pretest. Recommendations: Health education campaigns concerning trachoma ought to be delivered through mass media. Community participation and self-reliance should be enforced. Health education programs directed towards control of communicable eye diseases should be planned and implemented through school health curriculum.