The Dengue Fever Prevention and Control Operation of Public Health Volunteers Wang Muang Sub-district, Pueai Noi District, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

This descriptive research aimed: 1) to examine public health volunteers’ knowledge, performance and obstacles in dengue fever prevention and control; and 2) to determine relationship between their knowledge and the performance on dengue fever prevention and control. Ninety-four public health volunteers in Wang Muang Sub-district, Pueai Noi District, Khon Kaen Province were randomly recruited. Questionnaires, with Kuder-Richardson (KR) Reliability at 0.76 and Cronbach’s alpha at 0.77, were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics: percentage, and analytical statistics: Pearson’s correlation coefficient.  The results revealed that

1. The majority of public health volunteers (84.14%) held moderate level of knowledge on dengue prevention and control.
2. Three main obstacles to prevent and control dengue fever were lack of collaboration from community members, frequently broken fogging machine, and shortage of larvicides.
3. Respondents’ knowledge level was significantly associated with the performance on dengue fever prevention and control (r = 0.502, p-value <0.05).

Therefore, to effectively prevent and control dengue fever, public health volunteers should be well educated. Materials for dengue fever prevention and control including fogging machine and larvicides should be enough provided. Also, building community collaboration and integrating this dengue fever prevention and control program with other health promotion program is needed.