Gemeinschaftsmedizin und Gesundheitserziehung

Abstrakt

Effects of Health Education on Knowledge and Attitude of Youth Corps Members to Sickle Cell Disease and its Screening in Lagos State

Olatona FA, Odeyemi KA, Onajole AT and Asuzu MC

Background: Sickle cell disease remains a significant public health problem especially in Nigeria where there is low level of knowledge, poor attitudes to the disease and prevalence (at birth) is 20 per 1000 births. This study was carried out to determine the effect of health education programme on the knowledge and attitudes to sickle cell disease and its screening among unmarried NYSC members in Lagos State.
Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study. Multistage sampling technique was used to determine 239 respondents in the intervention and 212 in the control groups. Baseline information was followed by health education programme on sickle cell disease and screening; after which genotype screening was offered free of charge for willing participants in the intervention group. Three months later, post intervention data using the same questionnaire was collected from both groups.
Results: At baseline, the proportion of the respondents who had good level of knowledge was low (25%), while the attitudes of the respondents were positive to most aspects of the disease considered. Post- intervention, the level of knowledge of sickle cell disease increased (64.1%), attitudes improved in most aspects considered and the proportion who knew their genotypes increased (11.9%) significantly only in the intervention group.
Conclusion: Health education of youth corps members was significantly effective in improving their level of knowledge, attitude to sickle cell disease and screening uptake. Sustained health education through school curriculum, mass media and health institutions is relevant to influence new graduates to have better knowledge and attitudes towards sickle cell disease; hence enable them to make informed decisions about pro-creation later in life.