Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards dengue prevention among primary school children with and without experience of previous dengue infection in southern Thailand

Abstract

To develop more effective intervention strategies against dengue, it is necessary to identify determinants of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP), which may be influenced by the dengue experiences of the population at risk. The aim of this study was to assess and compare KAP regarding dengue prevention between Thai primary school children with and without experiences of dengue. A cross-sectional study was conducted among children between ages 8 and 13, attending the 50 public primary schools in Kanchanadit district, between October and November 2019. A 32-item questionnaire was used to collect children's socio-demographic characteristics (4 items), health information (2 items), knowledge (10 items), attitudes (7 items), and practices (9 items) towards dengue prevention, which required 30 min to complete. The KAP between groups was then statistically compared, to identify possible causes of observed differences. Of 1979 children, 15.6% self-reported that they had been infected with dengue, while 84.4% had no history of the disease. Most children indicated that they obtained dengue-related information from primary school teachers (73.6%) and their parents (68.5%). No statistically significant differences in mean KAP scores were observed between children with and without dengue experiences ( P > 0.05). When KAP scores were categorized as good or poor levels, based on an 80% cut-off, 12.3% of all children had good dengue-related knowledge, 41.6% had good attitudes, and 25.9% reported good preventive practices. Dengue experience was significantly and positively associated with exercising good preventive practices (odds ratio [OR] = 1.34, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03–1.75, P = 0.031). There were significant positive correlations between attitudes and practices in both children with and without dengue experiences ( P < 0.001). To enhance KAP towards dengue prevention, further efforts are needed to increase routine dengue health education programs for primary school students who have and have not experienced dengue, and to improve health education programs within communities, especially to assist guardians with the dissemination of dengue literature.

Treatment-Seeking Behaviors and Knowledge, Attitude and Practices among Suspected Dengue Adult Patients at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Bangkok, Thailand

“…A history of previous dengue infection was found to be associated with better KAP in previous reports [ 12 ]. Due to the low number of previous dengue infection among our participants, we could not demonstrate the same trend.…”

“…These findings reflect the growing impact of dengue on the urban population. There were many previous studies about KAP and care-seeking behaviors with regards to dengue infection; however, most of them were conducted in healthy persons [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], healthy children [ 12 ], health care providers [ 13 ] and pediatric patients whose data was provided by care givers [ 3 , 12 , 14 ]. Thus, it is important to explore KAP and care-seeking patterns in the adult population, as there has been an increase in the incidence and severity of dengue infection among this age group.…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior of Larva Monitoring Interpreter (Jumantik) Cadre as Efforts to Prevent Dengue Cases

“…Test (12.9) and post-test (14.2) means an increase of 1.3%, based on the results of the paired T-test all showed significant p = 0.000-0.003. This shows that the knowledge of the respondents has increased after receiving the counseling the province of Surat Thani, about 651 km South of Bangkok, capital of Thailand, which concluded that to improve knowledge and attitudes essential increase in community health education program [24]. The existence of differences in the level of the attitude shown by the Cadres Jumantik before and after extension is consistent with research Fatmawati against high school students in Surakarta where there are differences in attitudes about sexually transmitted diseases before and after health education intervention [25].…”

Effect of dengue hemorrhagic fever health education on knowledge and attitudes, in elementary school children in West Java, Indonesia

“…Supports if a Median score ≥ 50 and Does not Support if a Median score is <50. Data analysis uses univariate analysis of frequency distribution and bivariate t-test analysis (Dewi, 2019;Suwanbamrung et al, 2021;Shulga et al, 2021).…”