Health Factors Perception and Prevention Behaviors of Upper Respiratory Tract Infection Among Pre-school Caregivers in Sisaket

Abstract

The objective of this cross-sectional research was to examine the relationship between health perceptions and upper respiratory tract infection (URI) prevention behaviors among caregivers of pre-school children. The sample group consisted of 188 parents and guardians of preschool children living in Nong Kaew Subdistrict, Mueang District, Sisaket Province, who were recruited from 12 specifically sampled villages. The research tools consisted of three questionnaires as follows: 1) the personal information of caregivers and children questionnaire, 2) perceptions of health in 5 areas questionnaire including: a) knowing the risk of disease; b) perception of disease severity; c) perceived benefits of practices; d) perception of barriers to implementation; and e) self-efficacy. and 3) behaviors to prevent URIs in preschool children in 5 areas questionnaire. The created questionnaire was checked for content validity (CVI 0.90) by three experts who checked confidence from a sample of 30 people. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.78. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's coefficient statistics were used to analyze the data.
The results of the study found that the majority (97.90%) of the 188 participating child caregivers were female. The overall prevention behavior for URIs among preschool children was at a moderate level. The perceived benefits of the practices were statistically significantly positively related to URI prevention behaviors in the areas of nutritional care and keeping warm at p<.01, respectively. There was a statistically significant negative relationship between perception of one's own abilities and infectious disease prevention behaviors in terms of ensuring exercise and rest, at p<.01. The results of this study would be useful as supportive data for the planning of effective prevention practices for URIs in Thai society.