Transmission of health information on leprosy from children to their families in an urban centre

Abstract

Summary A health education study utilizing a homework assignment was carried out in a private secondary school in Bangalore, South India, to determine whether health information about leprosy would be transferred from children to their families. After a pre-test questionnaire on knowledge and attitude about leprosy was administered to 3 Standard VII classes and their family members, a different comprehensive health education session was given to each class: (i) leprosy plus a homework assignment; (ii) leprosy alone; and (iii) tuberculosis alone.' A post-test questionnaire was administered to all participants I month later. Of the 118 children and 229 family members who entered the study, almost 80% of the participants completed it. The children in the leprosy-educated groups showed significant improvement in knowledge compared with controls, but no change in their attitude towards leprosy. Although post-test responses of household members showed modest improvement in knowledge about leprosy, attitudes remained the same or worsened. The homework assignment did not appear to improve the transmission of health information to household members.This study showed that the knowledge level of family members in South India could be improved modestly by educating their children about leprosy. However, attitudes towards leprosy were unaffected or worsened.

Knowledge, Belief and Attitude of the Community towards Leprosy Patients in Gindeberet Woreda, West Shewa Zone

“…In this study, more males than females had significantly higher knowledge regarding the symptoms of leprosy. And these differences in proportions were statistically significant which was supported by various studies [14,18,39,40].…”

“…Therefore, the diagnosis of leprosy can often be traumatic for individuals and their families and a person affected by leprosy suffers negative reactions such as shame, fear and guilt. The community reaction to leprosy cause serious constraints on social activities of the leprosy patient and their families [13,14].…”

Leprosy: Knowledge and Attitudes of Physiotherapists in Nigeria

“…This finding underscores the important role of formal acquisition of knowledge through relevant training with particular reference to leprosy (Jacobs et al, 1994;Baral et al, 1998). Although not reported for physiotherapists, the strategies suggested for PHC workers may well benefit physiotherapists.…”

Attention for Lyme prevention

“…Furthermore, as children with a high knowledge level were checked more frequently by their parents, it would be interesting to disentangle cause and effect (whether children influence their parents to perform preventive behavior or parents influence their children). Studies on knowledge transfer that aim to improve health literacy about paediatric infectious disease prevention in families showed that children are able to play an active role in family's health situations [144,20,90,134].…”