Enhancing the Motivation of Community Leaders for Preventing Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Using the Participatory Learning Process A Study at the Tal Sub-District, Sikhoraphum District, Surin Province

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research aimed to investigate the effects of the participatory learning process
in order to enhance the motivation of community leaders to prevent dengue hemorrhagic fever at the Tal Subdistrict,
Sikhoraphum District, Surin Province. Seventy community leaders participated in the study and had
been distributed to an experimental and a control group of 35 individuals for each group. Village leaders had
been recruited by purposive sampling. Village leaders of the experimental group belonged to Moo 4 and those
of the control group to Moo 8. The experimental group participated in a training program which was conducted
for 8 weeks and evaluated afterwards. Data were collected using a questionnaire and a Breteau index survey.
Then, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Paired t-test, Independent t-test, Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed
Rank-test and Mann-Whitney-U-test were used for quantitative data analyses.
The motivation of the community leaders to prevent dengue hemorrhagic fever improved significantly
after the training course for the experimental group. Participants of this group better understood risk factors
responsible for spreading the disease, how the villagers should behave to avoid the disease and how best to
participate in measures for prevention. The Breteau index (B.I.) was lower than before the experiment. In
addition, after the experiment, the experimental group had significantly higher scores for all domains
mentioned in comparison to the control group and also had a Breteau index (B.I.) lower than the control group.
In conclusion, the methods applied in this project could improve health behavior to prevent DHF.
Through community participation the people realized that it is possible and necessary to prevent DHF. So for
instance as a down to earth preventive measure a poecilia fish fund had been established. Fishes were
distributed throughout the village to be released in open water containers to eliminate mosquito larvae instead
of adding chemicals to the water containers.