The Effects of a Behavioral Development Program for Opisthorchiasis Prevention at a Community, Mahachai Sub District, Plapak District, Nakhonphanom Province

Abstract

This investigation was conducted as a quasi-experimental study and aimed to
explore the effects of a health promotion program by applying of the Health Belief Model
and Appreciation Influence Control (AIC)in connection with the prevention of
opisthorchiasis infections at a community, of the Mahachai Sub District Plapak District,
Nakhonphanom Province. The sample size consisted of 80 subjects and they were divided
into an experimental and a comparison group, containing out of 40 participants for each
group. The experimental group was subject to an attempt to change their behavior suitable
for opisthorchiasis prevention. The implementation included lectures with videos modeling,
brochures and group discussions. The experimental group also received social support from
health volunteers, those preparing food in the households, health professionals, and the
researcher. The project was conducted for 12 weeks. Data were collected by
questionnaires. Descriptive data were analyzed by descriptive statistics such as frequency,
percentage, mean and standard deviations. Comparative data analysis used paired sample
t-test, the independent t-test, and 95% confidence intervals with a level of significance at
0.05.
The results showed that the experimental group developed statistically, significant
higher mean scores at the end of the project and above the comparison group for
knowledge about the parasitic infection, the perceived susceptibility, the perceived
severity, the perceived benefits and barriers of opisthorchiasis prevention.(p-value< 0.001).
It is suggested that influential persons in the community should hint towards sign and
symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma patients to their fellow villagers so that people are afraid
of opisthorchiasis increasingly. In addition, those preparing meals in the households should
be stimulated to cook and fry fish properly so that the infective agents for the parasite
within the fish are killed during the preparation process.