Knowledge, attitude and reported practice of primary school teachers on specified school health activities in Danuphyu Township, Ayeyarwaddy Region, Myanmar

Authors

  • Ye Minn Htun Preventive and Social Medicine Department, Defense Services Medical Academy, Yangon,
  • Kay Thi Lwin Preventive and Social Medicine Department, University of Medicine (1) Yangon,
  • Nwe Nwe Oo University of Nursing, Yangon, Myanmar. 5Honorary Professor, Anthropology Department, Yangon University, Yangon,
  • Kyaw Soe Preventive and Social Medicine Department, Defense Services Medical Academy, Yangon,
  • Than Tun Sein Anthropology Department, Yangon University, Yangon,

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17707

Keywords:

School health, knowledge, attitude, practice, Myanmar

Abstract

Schools are important settings for comprehensive health promotion. School exerts the most influence on the lives of children and youth. Schools can play a key role in supporting students health and, by extension, the health of their families and communities. This school-based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in Danuphyu Town-ship from June to November, 2012. This study aimed to identify the levels of knowledge, attitude and practice of primary school teachers concerning four school health activities: comprehensive school health education; healthy school environments; prevention and control of communicable diseases; and nutritional promotion and food safety. The sample consisted of 97 teachers from 23 primary schools were randomly selected to participate in the study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. It was found that 62.9% of teachers achieved a high level of knowledge scores (mean knowledge score of 39.10 with SD 3.087); 57.7% had a positive attitude towards school health activities; 52.6% of teachers achieved high reported practice scores (with mean practice score of 66.07 and SD 4.17); teachers from urban areas, over 50 years of age, and with service duration of 20-24 years, are statistically significantly associated with higher levels of reported practice; teachers with high knowledge and posi-tive attitude scores achieved higher reported practice scores, but these associations are not statistically significant. Overall, over 50% of the teachers had a high knowledge, a positive attitude and high practice scores relating to school health activities, and this shows that favorable conditions exist at the schools among the teachers for further strengthening the school health program of Myanmar. Enhancing teachers' involvement in school health activities would establish good outcomes of the school health promotion program. Provision of continuous training of teach-ers in school health would further enhance knowledge of teachers, and would gradually inculcate positive attitudes among them. This would lead towards more involvement of teachers in school health activities.

South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 24-29

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17707

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
409
PDF
470

Downloads

Published

2014-01-18

How to Cite

Htun, Y. M., Lwin, K. T., Oo, N. N., Soe, K., & Sein, T. T. (2014). Knowledge, attitude and reported practice of primary school teachers on specified school health activities in Danuphyu Township, Ayeyarwaddy Region, Myanmar. South East Asia Journal of Public Health, 3(1), 24–29. https://doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17707

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Original Research

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).