Knoledge, Attitude and Awerness on Diarrhoea among Secondary School Students of Itahari Municipality.

Abstract

This is a field-based study to reflect the picture of knowledge, attitude and awareness of secondary school students regarding diarrhea in selected school of Itehari municipality of Sunsari district. This study is manly based on the primary data, collected from six government secondary school of Sunsari district in 2011, which include 200 students of grade 10 out of 700 was taken for the sample size, Among them 96 (48%) are the male and 104 (52.0%) are the female, by adopting systematic random sampling method. The objectives of the study were, to awareness the community about their health problems and encourage solving their problem by themselves, to identify knowledge and attitude of the ten graders on diarrhea, to examine the students’ knowledge, about mode of transmission and preventive measure. To carry out effectively, semi-structured questionnaire was designed for the quantitative data collection. Most of the questions were pre coded and some open question had also been included in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre tested to 5% students in the same type school. After the pre-testing and suggestions from supervisor, some modifications were made on previous questionnaire and finalized them. Knowledge on diarrhea is universal. Almost all (91.5%) respondents know about the symptoms of diarrhea. Most of all known about the preventive measure of diarrhea. Majority of them, know the transmitting rout (63.5%) of the diarrhea. Most of them were know about the treatment process, by providing Jeevan-Jal (29%) and salt+sugar+water (58.5%) for the diarrheas patient. The main sources of information are the radio and television. That means mass-media plays a vital role in creation awareness on diarrhea. Majority of the respondents have positive attitude towards love and affection, which is needed for infected person. Various INGOs and NGOs have been working intensively against health program but findings of this study do not agree with the effectiveness of the program. The knowledge and attitude of the students in secondary level towards diarrhea seems to, not enough. To develop high level of knowledge, special care should be given in designing course and including the content about it. It is recommended that, the perceptions perceived by the respondents can be considered as the entry point for the planners and policy makers relating to these matters.