Performance of village health volunteers on tuberculosis prevention in Mahachanachai district, Yasothon province, Thailand

Abstract

        A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to study the performance of village health volunteers (VHVs) on tuberculosis (TB) prevention in Mahachanachai district, Yasothon province, Thailand. The aims of this research were to identify the performance of VHVs on TB prevention, and independent variables: sociodemographic factors, psycho-social factors, and social support. The relationship between independent variables and performance of VHVs on TB prevention was to identify. There were 315 VHVs in this study and data was collected at Mahachanachai district.
        The results revealed that VHVs had high performance on TB prevention (56.51%). The role which most of them erformed was to advise the group of TB suspected cases about TB examination and send sputum samples to a health center (97.46 %). Slightly over one-half of VHVs (56.83%) had good knowledge, and over two-thirds of VHVs (69.84%) had high perception towards TB prevention. The majority (76.51%) of VHVs had high social support. Based on categories of social support, the most received support was emotional support, while the least received support was instrumental support. In addition, VHVs received the most support from the family members. Significant associations were found between performance of VHVs and age group, knowledge, and social support including emotional support, informational support, and instrumental support.
        The results suggest that VHVs’ capacities on TB prevention should be encouraged by providing a regular refresher training course to improve their knowledge about TB prevention, and also social support should be strengthened to VHVs for improving their performance.