A comparative study on knowledge, attitude, social support and preventive behavior on dengue hemorrhagic fever among the people living in the epidemic and non-epidemic villages in Makham District, Chanthaburi Province

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to compare the knowledge, attitude, social support and preventive behavior on dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) among people living in epidemic and non-epidemic villages in Makham District, Chanthaburi Province. The 291 subjects were selected as the representative households aged 20-60 years. Data were collected by using the questionnaire interviewing, including data on frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation and were analyzed by using independent t-test. The results revealed that most of subjects are female both in epidemic and non-epidemic villages, age average of people was 35.9 years in epidemic villages and 38.1 years in non-epidemic villages. The subjects in epidemic and non-epidemic villages had the knowledge mean score of 9.6 and 10.5, respectively, attitude mean score of 43.4 and 41.2, social support mean score of 17.0 and 19.2 and dengue hemorrhagic fever preventive behavior mean score of 33.8 and 36.6, respectively. The result of this study showed that the two villages are different in their knowledge, attitude, social and dengue hemorrhagic fever preventive behavior with statistically significant difference (p<0.05). It is highly recommend that public health officer should focus on training on preventive behavior to prevent dengue hemorrhagic fever. The motivation, support or facilitation, rewarding are important issues in supporting and stimulating people to prevent dengue hemorrhagic fever in their communities.