Improving Schistosomiasis Knowledge Among School Children and Teachers in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Schistosomiasis remains a health problem in Central Sulawesi and an intervention is needed to eliminate the disease. Health education training has been carried out to improve knowledge on schistosmiasis prevention and transmission among elementary school children and teachers. The training targets are expected to be an agent of change to introduce schistosomiasis control measures. This study used a quasi-experimental design by providing training materials on schistosomiasis control and followed by collecting and examining stool samples, catching and examining rats, conducting snails survey and examining snails to determine cercaria presence. There were 63 elementary school children participating in the intervention as case group and there were 63 elementary school children in the control group. Structured tests were conducted to determine the improved knowledge of the participants after the health education training within three phases. The results of this research reveal that there is significant improvement on the knowledge in the intervention group and in all post-test, with p-values of 0.000. On the contrary, there is no differences between before and after health education training (p-value=0.356) in the non treated group. It can be concluded that knowledge on schistosomiasis control increases among school community after intervention.