Gulzar Saleema, Saeed Sana, Taufiq Kirmani Salimah, Karmaliani Rozina
School of Nursing and Midwifery, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
PLOS Glob Public Health. 2022 Jun 15;2(6):e0000500. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000500. eCollection 2022.
Education is one of the vital social determinants of health. Health and education share a symbiotic relationship for all cadre including children and adolescents to ensure that they are well equipped to combat the health risk in the environment. The current literature globally found some initiatives to create health awareness among school children. However, there is a dearth of studies available addressing parental health awareness through school platforms. Therefore, the current study aims to fill this gap, and the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery initiated the School Health Program (SHP) in one of the remote communities in Sindh, Pakistan. The overall goal of the study was to improve children's health by enhancing the health awareness of the parents through school platforms utilizing online modalities. Another objective of this study was to identify the effect of using eLearning on parental knowledge and perceptions. The study utilized a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. Twelve health awareness sessions relevant to children's health using eLearning were conducted over one year. Parents' knowledge was assessed through a pre-posttest, which was administered after each teaching session. Subsequently, focused group discussions were carried out with parents, community leaders, and schoolteachers to gain insights regarding the effectiveness of the health education program. The pre-and post-test results showed again in knowledge in nine out of twelve sessions. The findings from qualitative content analysis yielded three key themes: Perceived usefulness of eLearning, Barriers affecting usability, and Way forward for eLearning through school platforms. The study showed parental satisfaction with the online health education awareness program. They exhibited enthusiasm and desire for further similar sessions in the future. The results demonstrated an enhancement in parental awareness about common health conditions among school children. This study may be replicated on a larger scale in the schools of Pakistan.
教育是健康的重要社会决定因素之一。健康与教育对包括儿童和青少年在内的所有群体都有着共生关系,以确保他们有充分的能力应对环境中的健康风险。全球现有文献发现了一些在学童中提高健康意识的举措。然而,通过学校平台提高家长健康意识的研究却很匮乏。因此,本研究旨在填补这一空白,阿迦汗大学护理与助产学院在巴基斯坦信德省的一个偏远社区启动了学校健康项目(SHP)。该研究的总体目标是通过利用在线模式的学校平台提高家长的健康意识,从而改善儿童的健康状况。本研究的另一个目标是确定使用电子学习对家长知识和认知的影响。该研究采用了顺序解释性混合方法设计。在一年的时间里,通过电子学习开展了12次与儿童健康相关的健康意识课程。家长的知识通过在每次教学课程后进行的前后测来评估。随后,与家长、社区领袖和学校教师进行了焦点小组讨论,以深入了解健康教育项目的有效性。前后测结果显示,在12次课程中有9次家长的知识有所增加。定性内容分析的结果产生了三个关键主题:电子学习的感知有用性、影响可用性的障碍以及通过学校平台开展电子学习的未来方向。研究表明家长对在线健康教育意识项目感到满意。他们表现出热情,并希望未来能有更多类似的课程。结果表明家长对学童常见健康状况的认识有所提高。本研究可在巴基斯坦的学校中更大规模地进行复制。