The Effect of Health Literacy Promotion Program in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control among Village Health Volunteers, Lamplaimat District, Buriram Province

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study, employing a two-group pretest–posttest design, aimed to examine the effects of a health literacy promotion program on tuberculosis prevention and control by comparing health literacy scores between an experimental group and a comparison group before and after program participation. The sample consisted of 76 village health volunteers, divided equally into an experimental group and a comparison group (38 participants each). The experimental group received the program for 12 weeks, while the comparison group did not receive the intervention. Data were collected using a health literacy questionnaire for tuberculosis prevention and control, with a reliability coefficient of 0.71. Data analysis included descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test and paired t-test).

The results revealed that, following participation in the program, the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in health literacy scores (mean difference = 18.14, 95% CI = 14.97-21.40, p-value = 0.001). After the intervention, the experimental group also had significantly higher scores than the comparison group (mean difference = 20.29, 95% CI = 18.00-22.58, p-value = 0.001). It can be concluded that the health literacy promotion program was effective in improving the knowledge and skills of village health volunteers in tuberculosis prevention and control, and can be applied to strengthen their role in case detection.