Impact of educational programmes on the health and dietary practices of the wokers of sewage fram in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation

Abstract

A study entitled the' Impact of educational programmes on the health and dietary practices of the workers of sewage farm in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation' was conducted to evaluated the impact of educational programmes on the knowledge and adoption of health and dietary practices by the workers of sewage farm in Thiruvananthapuram and also to find out the comparative effectiveness of the selected teaching methods. The study was carried out in Valiathura ward in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation where the sewage farm is situated. Two selected visual aids viz., flashcards and slides, were tested for their effectiveness. The subjects selected to teach the respondents were Balanced diet, deficiency diseases, environmental sanitation and diarrhoea-reasons and remedies. Hundred families of sewage workers belonging to the defined area form the study sample. The experimental group consisted of 56 women sewage workers. The four groups were exposed to all the selected topics at one week interval using the selected teaching methods. Gain in knowledge, retention in knowledge and the adoption of gained knowledge on health, hygiene and dietary practices are the dependent variables. Age, family size, type of family, annual income, educational status of the respondent and family, mass media contact, dietary practices, physical facility available in the family and health profile were selected as independent variables. The results revealed that the educational programme had significant impact on the knowledge and adoption of health and dietary practices by the workers of sewage farm. The gain in knowledge and retention was more on the topic deficiency diseases. The treatment II i.e., lecture + flashcard was the most effective method in terms of gain in knowledge where as the combination of all contributed the maximum to retention of knowledge. The knowledge adoption was also more on the topic deficiency diseases and the adoption was more in the respondents, who were exposed to treatment II i.e., lecture +flashcard. The analysis of correlation coefficient revealed that the age and family size of the respondents were not correlated significantly, in the case of gain in knowledge, retention of knowledge and adoption. Income of the respondent was significantly and negatively correlated with the retention of knowledge. The educational status of the respondent was significantly and positively correlated with the retention of knowledge. The mass media participation of the respondent was positively correlated with gain and retention of knowledge. There was no significant relationship between the dependent variables and the total physical facility available in the family. Change in food consumption pattern on various physiological conditions have significant positive association with the retention of knowledge. The relative effectiveness of the selected teaching methods revealed that there was significant difference between the selected four methods of teaching. The lecture method in combination with selected visual aids have more influence on the gain, retention and adoption of compared with the lecture method alone.