Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention Programme on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of School Children Regarding Prevention of Hypertension Moothedath Sunil1,*, Joseph Valsamma2 1Professor and Head, Department of Child Health Nursing, Amrita College of Nursing, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, India 2Principal, Govt. College of Nursing, Thrissur *Correspondence: Dr. Sunil Moothedath, Professor & Head, Department of Child Health Nursing, Amrita College of Nursing, Kochi-682 041, Email: sunilmoothedath43@gmail.com, sunilm@aims.amrita.edu Tel: 9846463481/9495677325
Online published on 26 September, 2019. Abstract A study was conducted to find out the effectiveness of an educational intervention programme on knowledge, attitude and practice regarding prevention of hypertension among school children from selected schools of Kerala. Objectives of the study (1) To find out the effectiveness of an educational intervention programme on knowledge, attitude and practice of school children regarding prevention of hypertension (2) To find out the correlation between knowledge, attitude and practice (3) To find out the association of knowledge, attitude and practice with selected variables. Methodology & Design Evaluative research approach with pre-test post-test control group design was used. 220 school children with pre hypertension in the age group of 13–16 years studying in 8th and 9th standards were included using simple random sampling in the study. An educational intervention programme aimed at diet, exercise and lifestyle modifications of school children was then implemented. Results The overall pre test knowledge score was 14.97 ± 5.06 in the control group and 15.37 ± 5.47 in the experimental group. Also it was seen that majority of school children in the control group (84%) and experimental group (75%) were having a favourable attitude on prevention of hypertension. And almost half of the school children in the control group (47.2%) and experimental group (48.1%) were having a fair practice on prevention of hypertension. After the intervention there was a significant difference between the post test knowledge and attitude scores of the control and experimental groups. The practice sore also was significantly improved. Conclusion The results of the present study is very much encouraging that similar programmes can definitely help in controlling life style diseases among children which is an emerging public health problem Top Keywords Blood pressure, pre hypertension, knowledge, attitude, practice, school children, educational intervention programme. Top |