Village health volunteers’ dengue fever prevention measures of Mae Ka Sub-district, Mueang District, Phayao Province

Abstract

This is a cross-sectional survey research. The objective was to study knowledge, perception, behavior and Dengue fever prevention measures of Village Health Volunteers (VHV.) at Ban Huai Khian Health Promoting Hospital, Mueang District, Phayao Province.  Data was collected from sample size of 171 people, using questionnaires. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Pearson, Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact test.

The study indicated that most of the sample were female (88.3%), ages between 41-60 years (60.8%), married (78.4%), with 4-6 family members (63%), completed primary school (53.2%), had occupation as farmer (43.9%), monthly incomes not more than 5,000 baht (72.5%), has moderate level of knowledge, awareness, risk awareness of obstacles, perception of severity of disease, recognizing the benefits of disease prevention (74.9%, 73.1%, 44.4%, 67.8%, 64.9% respectively).  VHV had a high level of practices in preventing dengue fever (71.3%). The research findings also indicated that gender, age, education level, and perceived barriers to dengue fever prevention practices, were statistically significant associated with dengue hemorrhagic fever prevention behavior, at 0.05.  As for marital status, number of family members, occupation, average income, knowledge, perceived violence risk recognition, and the perceived benefits for the prevention of dengue fever, they were not significantly associated. This research suggest that the public health volunteers should be encouraged to improve their knowledge and perception by health agencies. They should adopt dengue fever prevention measures in a systematic way.