A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Program Related to Knowledge Regarding Dengue Fever Among the People of Selected Rural Area, Shankar, Punjab (2019)

Dengue fever is an acute mosquito-borne viral illness of sudden onset with headache, high-grade fever, severe joint and muscle pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy), and body rashes. Dengue fever is caused by the mosquito named Aedesaegypt, which belongs to family Flaviviridae. The first record of a case of prbable dengue fever is in a Chinese medical encyclopedia from the Jin Dynasty (265–420 AD), which referred to a “water poison” associated with flying insects. The first confirmed case report dates from 1789 and is by Benjamin Rush, who coined the term “breakbone fever” because of the symptoms of myalgia and arthralgia. Therefore, it is necessary to educate the people to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of dengue fever. A pre-experimental “single-group pre-test–post-test design” was adopted in the study to assess the effectiveness of planned teaching program related to knowledge regarding dengue fever among the people of selected rural area, Shankar. The objectives of the study were to assess the pre-test knowledge regarding dengue fever among people of selected rural area and to assess the post-test knowledge regarding dengue fever among the people of selected rural area and to compare the pre-test and post-test knowledge regarding dengue fever among the people of selected rural area. The conceptual framework adopted for the study was based on Fitts and Posner keeping in view the objectives of the study, and evaluative research approach was considered to be the most appropriate. The research design selected for the study was pre-experimental “one-group pre-test–post-test design”. The study was conducted purposively in selected people of the selected rural area. A sample size of 40 people was selected using random sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire containing 30 multiple choice questions was developed for data collection. The significant findings of the study were the mean post-test knowledge score was significantly higher than the mean pre-test score at P > 0.05 level, related to their selected socio-demographic variables, i.e., age, gender, religion, education, occupation, family income, family status and type of family.