Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa.
Syst Rev. 2013 Jul 18;2:58. doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-2-58.
There is a significant global health burden associated with acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD), especially in developing countries. ARF and RHD most often strike children and young adults living in impoverished settings, where unhygienic conditions and lack of awareness and knowledge of streptococcal infection progression are common. Secondary prophylactic measures have been recommended in the past, but primary prevention measures have been gaining more attention from researchers frustrated by the perpetual prevalence of ARF and RHD in developing countries. Health education aims to empower people to take responsibility for their own well-being by gaining control over the underlying factors that influence health. We therefore conducted a review of the current best evidence for the use of health education interventions to increase awareness and knowledge of streptococcal pharyngitis and ARF.
This article describes the protocol for a systematic review of the effectiveness of health education interventions aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge of the symptoms, causes and consequences of streptococcal pharyngitis, rheumatic fever and/or rheumatic heart disease. Studies will be selected in which the effect of an intervention is compared with either a pre-intervention or a control, targeting all possible audience types. Primary and secondary outcomes of interest are pre-specified. Randomized controlled trials, quasi-randomized trials, controlled before-after studies and controlled clinical trials will be considered. We will search several bibliographic databases (for example, PubMed, EMBASE, World Health Organization Library databases, Google Scholar) and search sources for gray literature. We will meta-analyze included studies. We will conduct subgroup analyses according to intervention subtypes: printed versus audiovisual and mass media versus training workshops.
This review will provide evidence for the effectiveness of educational components in health promotion interventions in raising public awareness in regard to the symptoms, causes and consequences of streptococcal pharyngitis, ARF and/or RHD. Our results may provide guidance in the development of future intervention studies and programs.
急性风湿热（ARF）和风湿性心脏病（RHD）在全球范围内给卫生健康带来了巨大负担，尤其是在发展中国家。ARF 和 RHD 常发生于生活在贫困环境中的儿童和青年人群中，这些地区卫生条件较差，人们对链球菌感染进展的认识和了解不足。过去曾推荐过二级预防措施，但由于发展中国家 ARF 和 RHD 的持续流行，研究人员越来越关注一级预防措施。健康教育旨在通过控制影响健康的潜在因素，使人们有能力为自己的健康负责。因此，我们对利用健康教育干预措施提高人们对链球菌性咽炎、ARF 和 RHD 的认识和了解的现有最佳证据进行了综述。
本文介绍了一项系统综述的方案，旨在评估旨在提高对链球菌性咽炎、风湿热和/或风湿性心脏病的症状、病因和后果的认识和了解的健康教育干预措施的有效性。将选择比较干预措施效果与干预前或对照组的研究，目标人群为所有可能的类型。主要和次要结局均为预先指定。将考虑随机对照试验、准随机试验、对照前后研究和对照临床试验。我们将检索多个文献数据库（例如 PubMed、EMBASE、世界卫生组织图书馆数据库、Google Scholar）和灰色文献来源。我们将对纳入的研究进行荟萃分析。我们将根据干预类型进行亚组分析：印刷品与视听材料，大众媒体与培训研讨会。
本综述将为健康教育成分在提高公众对链球菌性咽炎、ARF 和/或 RHD 的症状、病因和后果的认识方面的健康促进干预措施的有效性提供证据。我们的研究结果可能为未来干预研究和项目的开展提供指导。
