Health education strategies for tropical disease control in school children.

This study was concerned with the demonstration of the outcome of health education in the control of malaria, schistosomiasis, dracontiasis and onchocerciasis in rural secondary schools in Nigeria using a simplified version of Green's antecedent model. Green identified three factors which could contribute to the prevalence of a disease or health problem and they are 'predisposing', 'enabling' and 'reinforcing' factors. Thus educational activities were planned in this project that would affect these three factors. The study was of a quasinon equivalent before and after experimental design. It was carried out in 10 secondary schools grouped into two equal clusters (five each) to form experimental and control groups. The post-intervention findings revealed that there was a significant increase in the knowledge of the four diseases among those in the experimental group over those in the control group. The results also showed that when knowledge was supported by enabling and reinforcing factors, desirable changes could result in the school setting among students.