Effectiveness of school-based health education intervention on knowledge, attitude and practices in pediculosis capitis

Pediculosis capitis can be found in any age and race although school-age children are the groups that are mostly at risk. The objective of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the health educational module based on KAP Model  on  the  level  of  knowledge,  attitude  and  practices  on  Pediculosis  capitis  among  school  children  in  Selangor.  A  cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted among students aged 10-11 years. Using simple random sampling, 10 schools were selected.  At  baseline,  a  validated   questionnaire  was  given  to  assess  their  KAP  level  and  screening  for  Pediculosis  capitis  was done.  Then  the  schools  were  divided  into  intervention  and  control  groups.  The  intervention  group  received  approximately  3 hours  of  concise  educational  module  whereas  the  control  group  only  received  a  30-minutes  health  talk  on  the  knowledge component of the module. All the students were prescribed with pediculicides for application at home. After two-weeks, the post-intervention  assessment  was  conducted  using  the  same  questionnaires.  The  students  were  re-examined  for  evidence  of Pediculosis  capitis  after  treatment.  A  total  of  4,344  students  were  examined  and  318  students  were  found  to  be  infested  with Pediculosis capitis. The overall prevalence was7.32 %. In the intervention group, only the attitude showed significant increase at 2-weeks post-intervention as compared to baseline (χ2 = 4.878, df =1, p = 0.027). Both knowledge and practice did not show significant increase of good knowledge and practice level at 2-weeks post-intervention as compared to baseline. In the control group,  none  of  the  variable  showed  significant  increase  at  2-weeks  postintervention  as  compared  to  baseline.  Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the educational intervention module in increasing the respondents’ KAP on Pediculosis capitis. GEE showed significant association of knowledge level and time point with group.The  odds  of  having  good  knowledge  in  the  intervention  group  is  1.7  times  higher  as  compared  to  the  control  group  (AOR  = 1.748, 95% CI:1.006 –3.035, p = 0.048). The odds of having good knowledge at 2-weeks postintervention was 1.1% higher as compared to baseline after adjusting for trial covariates (AOR =0 .011, 95%CI:0.006 –0.019, p<0.001).