Effectiveness of common risk factor approach based health education module: A quasi-experimental study

Background: Globally there is a shift of the disease burden from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases. India is no exception in witnessing a rising incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Moreover NCDs have their common risk factors which could be addressed with minimum cost but maximum output utilising a setting based Common Risk Factor Approach (CRFA) for health promotion. Schools, an important setting with its essential stakeholder’s teachers, have the policy mandate to support action to promote the health of young people and importantly, they have the opportunity (and often the capacity) to do so. Therefore this study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of common risk factor approach based health education module in higher primary school teachers in Bangalore city, India. Method: A Quasi experimental study employing one group pre and post intervention design was undertaken with a sample of 151 school teachers in Bengaluru. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics. Changes in scores before and after the completion of the CRFA based health education program in knowledge, attitude & self -perceived behaviour (KAB) was measured using Paired student’s t test. Results: The mean ± SD total knowledge, attitude & self -perceived behaviour score of respondents significantly increased from 15.66±3.59 to 18.48±2.77, 35.77±3.01 to 41.17±3.34 & 4.91±1.63 to 6.46±1.75 (n=151, P<0.05) after the intervention respectively. Conclusion: The significant improvement in the knowledge, attitude and self- perceived behaviour towards CRFA among a sample of school teachers compared with the base line results emphasises the need for training teachers in health education.