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A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned

This thesis is the product of a two-year intervention aimed at controlling the prevalence of schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), a parasitic disease, among school children in a rural area of11angochi District, Malawi between 1996 and 1998. The question this thesis addresses as its focus is, which degree of...

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Main Author: Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo
Other Authors: Foster, Donald
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo
author2 Foster, Donald
author_browse Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo
Foster, Donald
author_facet Foster, Donald
Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo
author_sort Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo
collection Thesis
description This thesis is the product of a two-year intervention aimed at controlling the prevalence of schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), a parasitic disease, among school children in a rural area of11angochi District, Malawi between 1996 and 1998. The question this thesis addresses as its focus is, which degree of health education input is the most efficient in controlling schistosomiasis? Guided by the. empirically supported social psychology theories of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), three varying degrees of health education input were provided to three primary schools, in the Koche catchment area of Mangochi. Each school was randomly assigned a different input. One school received "minimum" input consisting of basic information provision through a brief talk given by a health professional. Another school was given the "medium" condition which was similar but had the addition of multimedia input to the school through peers in the form of clubs and the third school deemed the "maximum" condition had the addition of pupil interaction with the local community. The framework that guided the intervention was Green's PRECEDE-PROCEED model (Green & Kreuter, 1991). It was used to guide the planning, implementation and evaluation of the intervention. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed to assess the three schools pre and post intervention. Comparisons were made across the schools as well as within two of the schools, comparing members of Bilharzia clubs established with non-members. No significant differences were observed across the input conditions. However, a subsection of the participants, the school club members experienced the most positive shifts in knowledge, attitude, behavioural intention and practice, Reduction of the prevalence of the disease was dependent on ongoing medication. It is concluded that the most efficient health education input was intense weekly input through the formation of clubs othenNise a brief lecture has the same effect on knowledge and practice as multimedia campaigns. Intentions of the sample were predominantly under non-native control prompting recommendations for further culturally based research using discursive approaches.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38411
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:26.417Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38411 A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo Foster, Donald Psychology This thesis is the product of a two-year intervention aimed at controlling the prevalence of schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), a parasitic disease, among school children in a rural area of11angochi District, Malawi between 1996 and 1998. The question this thesis addresses as its focus is, which degree of health education input is the most efficient in controlling schistosomiasis? Guided by the. empirically supported social psychology theories of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), three varying degrees of health education input were provided to three primary schools, in the Koche catchment area of Mangochi. Each school was randomly assigned a different input. One school received "minimum" input consisting of basic information provision through a brief talk given by a health professional. Another school was given the "medium" condition which was similar but had the addition of multimedia input to the school through peers in the form of clubs and the third school deemed the "maximum" condition had the addition of pupil interaction with the local community. The framework that guided the intervention was Green's PRECEDE-PROCEED model (Green & Kreuter, 1991). It was used to guide the planning, implementation and evaluation of the intervention. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed to assess the three schools pre and post intervention. Comparisons were made across the schools as well as within two of the schools, comparing members of Bilharzia clubs established with non-members. No significant differences were observed across the input conditions. However, a subsection of the participants, the school club members experienced the most positive shifts in knowledge, attitude, behavioural intention and practice, Reduction of the prevalence of the disease was dependent on ongoing medication. It is concluded that the most efficient health education input was intense weekly input through the formation of clubs othenNise a brief lecture has the same effect on knowledge and practice as multimedia campaigns. Intentions of the sample were predominantly under non-native control prompting recommendations for further culturally based research using discursive approaches. 2023-09-06T10:00:38Z 2023-09-06T10:00:38Z 2000 2023-09-06T10:00:22Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38411 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Psychology
Bandawe, Chiwoza Rutendo
A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned
title_full A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned
title_fullStr A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned
title_full_unstemmed A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned
title_short A schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural Malawian school children : lessons learned
title_sort schistosomiasis health education intervention among rural malawian school children lessons learned
topic Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38411
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