Effects of a behavioral promotion program on hand-foot-mouth disease prevention by applying the protection motivation theory among parents in early childhood development centers in Saraburi Province
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/dcj.2025.50Keywords:
hand-foot-mouth disease, parents, early childhood development center, behavioral promotion program on hand-foot-mouth disease prevention, protection motivation theoryAbstract
This quasi-experimental study with a two-group pretest-posttest design aimed to examine the effects of a behavioral promotion program on hand-foot-mouth disease prevention. The Protection Motivation Theory was applied to conduct a study among parents in early childhood development centers in Saraburi Province from February 3 to March 28, 2025. A total of 100 parents were purposively selected from 2 childhood development centers and randomly assigned into experimental and comparison groups, with 50 participants in each group. The experimental group received an 8-week intervention consisting of classroom activities, online learning, and reminder messages via the LINE application. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, including Paired t-test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, and Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed that after the intervention, the experimental group had a significant difference (p<0.05) in knowledge, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived self-efficacy, response efficacy, and prevention behavior compared to the comparison group with p=0.001, p<0.001, p=0.002, p<0.001, p<0.001 and p=0.005, respectively. These findings suggest that the behavioral promotion program was effective and could be integrated into hand-foot-mouth disease prevention and control strategies in early childhood development centers.
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