Effects of Experiential Learning Program of Community Health Workers on Health Literacy and Preventive Behaviors of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases of Respiratory System.

Abstract

Community health workers (CHWs) can be extremely important in many facets of healthcare, especially for marginalized communities. Health Literacy and Preventive Behaviors of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases of the Respiratory System were important for CHWs in Preventing and Control Diseases. This quasi-experimental research; a 2 pretest-post group design, aimed to investigate the result of the experiential learning program of the CHWs toward health literacy and preventive behaviors of the infection of emerging and re-emerging diseases of the respiratory system. The samples are 66 CHWs working in Ngao District, Lampang Province which were divided into 2 groups; the experimental and control groups, 33 subjects for each group. The tools used in this research consisted of an experiential learning program for 6 weeks and a questionnaire concerning health literacy and preventive behaviors of emerging and re-emerging diseases in the respiratory system. The experimental group had the mean score of health literacy regarding the prevention of emerging and re-emerging diseases of the respiratory system at the highest level (<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mover><mi>X</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></mrow></math> = 4.52, SD = 0.16) which was higher than before receiving the program which was a high level (<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mover><mi>X</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></mrow></math> = 3.61, SD = 0.32) at the significant level of <i>P</i> < .001 while the preventive behavior concerning the emerging and re-emerging diseases in the respiratory system was at the highest level (<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mover><mi>X</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></mrow></math> = 4.63, SD = 0.41)and higher than the control group which was at a high level (<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mover><mi>X</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></mrow></math> = 4.36, SD = 0.50) at the significant level of <i>P</i> < .001. The research results could be a guideline for developing the CHW's potential effectively and proficiently.