Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Department of Education Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Malar J. 2022 Apr 2;21(1):113. doi: 10.1186/s12936-022-04120-x.
Although it is a preventable disease, malaria continues to present one of the major global health challenges. The disease is especially deadly to children under the age of 5 years. This is partly due to the fact that they have yet to build up an immune system to help protect them against malaria. As a prevention strategy, music is one way of communicating knowledge to young children and could therefore potentially be used to change children's behaviour in order to avoid getting sick from malaria. This exploratory study aimed to compare intervention strategies designed to educate and improve knowledge growth about malaria and its prevention in Grade 3 learners in a high-risk malaria region in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa.
Various intervention strategies were employed and evaluated to determine the most effective intervention method. The study was split into two Phases. Phase 1 used a culturally and age-appropriate song as an intervention, along with a drama piece, a song and drama piece combination, and a control group. The most effective intervention strategy determined during Phase 1 was then subjected to Phase 2, against a control group to validate its efficacy. Questionnaires were used during pre-intervention and post-intervention interviews to evaluate the knowledge growth, if any, of the learners of selected primary schools in two different areas in Vhembe District. Pre-intervention interviews were followed by a specific intervention, based on the respective study groups. After 6 weeks, the post-intervention interviews were done to determine how much learners managed to learn and retain from the intervention received.
The study found that the group that had only the song as intervention was the most effective learning intervention method in both Phases 1 and 2. Both phases showed that there was statistical significance in almost all of the nine questions asked on the questionnaires.
The study concluded that a culturally and age-appropriate song can play a significant role in developing behavioural changes and spreading awareness against disease in a high-risk malaria region.
疟疾虽然是一种可预防的疾病，但仍是全球主要的健康挑战之一。该疾病尤其对 5 岁以下的儿童具有致命性。这在一定程度上是因为他们尚未建立免疫系统来帮助抵御疟疾。作为一种预防策略，音乐是向幼儿传播知识的一种方式，因此它有可能被用来改变儿童的行为，以避免因疟疾而生病。本探索性研究旨在比较旨在教育和提高南非林波波省威姆贝区高危疟疾地区 3 年级学习者对疟疾及其预防的知识增长的干预策略。
采用了各种干预策略并对其进行了评估，以确定最有效的干预方法。该研究分为两个阶段。第 1 阶段使用了一首具有文化和年龄适宜性的歌曲作为干预手段，同时还使用了一部戏剧作品、歌曲和戏剧作品的组合以及对照组。第 1 阶段确定的最有效的干预策略随后在第 2 阶段中进行了测试，与对照组进行了对比以验证其疗效。在干预前和干预后访谈中使用了问卷来评估 Vhembe 区两个不同地区的选定小学的学习者的知识增长情况。干预前访谈之后，根据各个研究组进行了具体的干预。6 周后，进行了干预后访谈，以确定学习者从所接受的干预中学到了多少并保留了多少。
该研究发现，在第 1 阶段和第 2 阶段，仅使用歌曲作为干预手段的组都是最有效的学习干预方法。两个阶段都表明，在问卷中提出的九个问题中，几乎所有问题都具有统计学意义。
研究得出的结论是，具有文化和年龄适宜性的歌曲可以在高危疟疾地区中发挥重要作用，促进行为改变和疾病意识的传播。
