Student messengers act as change agents for health and modify the behavior of their families as well as the community. Integration of the school health programs with malaria education enhances the participation of school teachers, parents, as well as the local community in malaria elimination. The objective of this review is to strengthen the evidence for school-based health educational interventions for malaria control and prevention activities. We searched six databases namely PubMed Central, Science Direct, CINAHL with full text, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, and Pro-Quest to find relevant studies between January 2001 and March 2022 based on PRISMA guidelines. Randomized controlled trial, before–after intervention, and quasi-experimental study designs were included and a meta-analysis was carried out using the random-effect model to pool out the results by using Rev-man 5.4 software. In this review, 13 studies were included. The pooled outcome of school-based educational interventions on malaria was moderate (Standardized Mean Difference—2.59) and a significant difference was observed in intervention and control schools (Z = 7.33, P < 0.00001). In conclusion, this review identified the facts for the prevention and control of malaria through school-based educational interventions. Our findings strengthen the concept of malaria elimination through student messengers to mobilize the local community.
Introduction: School children are a means to reach and sensitize the community on the prevention of seasonal diseases such as malaria and dengue. The current study aims to determine the impact of schoolbased educational interventions on the knowledge of students toward the prevention and control of malaria and dengue in higher secondary schools.Methods: This pre-and post-intervention study was conducted in three higher secondary schools in Zone IV, North Chennai, from September to December 2021. A total of 284 students in the age group of 13-17 years participated in the study. School-based educational interventions were delivered through PowerPointassisted lectures, participatory group activities, and demonstration of mosquito larvae and their control. The impact of the interventions as the change in knowledge level was analyzed using McNemar's test, with a p-value of <0.05.Results: Educational interventions led to the improvement in knowledge about malaria symptoms, such as fever (43.7% to 76.1%; p<0.001), chills (45.1% to 82.4%; p<0.001), and headache (46.1% to 86.6%; p<0.001), and the knowledge of Aedes mosquito bites as the cause of dengue transmission enhanced (41.9% to 92.2%; p<0.001). Similarly, there was an increase in knowledge on the identification of vector mosquito breeding sites inside the house (11.9% to 67.9%; p<0.001) and outside the house (10.9% to 69.7%; p<0.001) and mosquito net usage (21.5% to 76.1%; p<0.001) after the interventions. Conclusion: School-based educational interventions had a significant impact on enhancing the knowledge on the prevention and control of malaria and dengue among school children. Involving school children can strengthen existing malaria and dengue prevention and control strategies in endemic areas.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.