Developing and Evaluating an Educational Program for Respiratory Infection Prevention among Rural Elderly Residents in South Korea

Abstract

Based on social cognitive theory (SCT), an educational program was developed to prevent rural elderly residents from respiratory infections in South Korea. The effectiveness of the program was investigated in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and practices about respiratory infection prevention, as well as social capital. A pretest–posttest nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental design was used to test the short-term effect of this program. In addition, 1- and 6-month follow-up surveys were administered to evaluate the long-term effects. A total of 69 subjects (37 in the experimental group and 32 in the control group) participated in the experiment. The results showed that knowledge about respiratory infection prevention, respiratory infection prevention practices, and social capital were enhanced among the elderly residents who participated in the educational program. The educational effects differed significantly across time periods (pretest, posttest, 1- and 6-month follow up) in all the above variables. In particular, the program remained effective 1 month after the intervention, but a reinforcement session extended the program’s effects up to 6 months later. This educational program would be used as an effective intervention to help rural elderly residents prevent respiratory infections.

A Systematic Review for Effective Preventive Public Education of Respiratory Infection

“…According to our PICOS criteria, the participants were designated as the adults over 18 years of age. In detail, the age of the subject in the study of Barrett et al [ 10 ] was specifically 30–69 years old, and the study conducted by Kim et al [ 6 ] also reported subjects’ age as over 60 years old. However, there age of the subjects in the other studies was not accurately specified.…”

“…The countries in which the study was conducted were: US [ 10 ], four in Europe (United Kingdom [ 4 ], Germany [ 9 ], Finland [ 5 ], Netherlands [ 2 ]), four in Asia (Malaysia [ 3 ], Thailand [ 8 ], two for the Republic of Korea [ 6 , 7 ]).…”

“…The educational intervention for the prevention of respiratory infections in the studies of the community level was conducted for the elderly aged 60 or older at the town hall, and once per a week (total five times), 50 min at a time. Specific contents included cough etiquette, hand washing, oral health, and exercise [ 6 ]. In addition, exercise and meditation for local community residents were conducted for 14 to 16 people per class for 8 weeks each, 2.5 h per class, and each person was allowed to practice for 20–40 min each day at home, and an additional 5 h for each program.…”

“…The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended both pharmacological interventions and non-drug treatments for the prevention of infectious diseases [ 5 ]. A number of therapeutics have been developed so far and influenza vaccination is clearly the most important prevention strategy available [ 6 ]. Nevertheless, non-pharmaceutical interventions may also be important in the absence of sufficient vaccine supply and to reduce transmission of various respiratory viruses because the large number of immunotypes precludes the development of a vaccine [ 7 ].…”

“…For example, in the medical domain, incidence of respiratory infections, respiratory infection episodes, and inflammatory biomarker levels were used, whereas for the psychosocial domain, quality of life, social network, social capital, stress, and self-efficacy were utilized [ 5 , 7 , 9 , 10 ]. The frequency and quality of hand washing were adopted by Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) in the health behavior domain [ 2 , 4 , 6 , 8 ]…”