Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Department of Community Medicine, Yenepoya Medical College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Abstract
BACKGROUND: An alarming trend of sustained blood pressure elevation among children and
adolescents has been found. Health education to schoolchildren in their formative age is the most
effective method to be able to modify their habits, and further, they can be enrolled as an effective
health educator for their parents.
OBJECTIVE: To study the effectiveness of health education module on study participants about
prevention and control of hypertension (HTN) and the effectiveness of child as a health educator on
parents’ knowledge about prevention and control of HTN.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This quasi‑experimental study was conducted with a control group
among high school students in two urban secondary schools. There were 110 students and 100
parents each in the intervention and control groups. Modular training with interactive teaching–learning
methods was conducted for students in the intervention group. They, in turn, educated their parents.
RESULTS: Postintervention, the study results showed a higher median for various domains in the
intervention group as compared to the control group among both students and parents. On applying
Mann–Whitney test, this difference was statistically significant with P < 0.001.
CONCLUSION: The increase in the knowledge of parents belonging to the intervention group
suggests the effective transfer of knowledge from the students to their parents.
Keywords
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