Effects of a national health promotion project on knowledge, perception, and competency of health care workers in Korea.

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of the demonstration health promotion projects on whether knowledge, perceptions, and competencies of health care workers in health centers improved as a result of participating in the health promotion projects. A total of 1,955 community health care workers were recruited for the study. Health care workers from 18 demonstration health centers (n = 728) were assigned to the study group. The remaining 1,227 health care workers from 36 health centers, who have not participated in the demonstration projects, were assigned to the control group. Mailed-out questionnaires were used to measure knowledge and perceptions related to health promotion programs, and competencies in carrying out health promotion programs of health care workers for both groups. The results indicated that knowledge, perception, and competency of health care workers who participated in the demonstration projects were significantly higher than those who had not; but at the same time, those participants of demonstration projects might be under stress due to the extra assignments required by the projects. For effective health promotion programs, there is a need to supplement the staff in the health centers to take charge of health promotion programs.