A Peer-Based Educational Intervention Effects on SARS-CoV-2 Knowledge and Attitudes among Polish High-School Students.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ganczak M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8623814 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Cancer, as the second most common cause of death after cardiovascular diseases, is a global health problem. There is still an increasing number of cancer incidences and deaths. The study was conducted as a part of the health promotion educational project concerning oncological education to develop the knowledge of cancer risk factors among high school students in Poland. A special questionnaire was filled out by students before the educational lesson on cancer conducted by medical students and young doctors. The study was carried out on 227 high school students (aged 17-18 years). Most students (67.5%) indicated that genetic predisposition is the most important cancer risk factor. Only about a quarter of students pointed to the relationship between lifestyle and cancer. Moreover, 41% of students admitted to smoking cigarettes. Most of them (80.6%) claimed that they can modify their own cancer risk. Almost all responders believed that early detected cancer is curable. High school students do not know about cancer risk factors and they do not relate cancer with lifestyle. Some students indicated bad lifestyle habits such as tobacco smoking. It is necessary to emphasize cancer prevention in early education, especially focusing on modification of lifestyle.
| S-EPMC8124587 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesAlthough cancer is seen in every state in the United States, it does not affect every geographic area and population equally. Kentucky has the highest cancer incidence and mortality rates in the country, with an unusually high number of cases localized in its Appalachian region. Risk factors such as sun exposure, tobacco use, poor diet/exercise, poverty, and lack of access to healthcare centers contribute to this disparity. Because education levels in the area are low, cancer literacy (defined as how well a person can understand the advice of a healthcare professional and make appropriate lifestyle decisions) also is low. In this study, we examined the short-term and long-term effects of a brief cancer-related intervention on the cancer literacy of Kentucky middle and high school students.MethodsThis study targeted middle and high school students in Kentucky. We administered an online 10-item cancer literacy pretest, followed by a brief educational intervention and a posttest to 164 students at six Kentucky middle and high schools. This posttest also included questions asking how likely students would be to change their habits or to encourage others to change their habits as a result of the intervention. All of the participating students also were sent a 3-month follow-up online survey with items identical to the pretest; 48 students completed the 3-month follow-up test, leading to a response rate of 29.2%. The data were summarized as frequencies, averages, median, and confidence intervals (CIs) of correctly marked answers. A paired t test was used to test for significance.ResultsWe observed an increase in the overall average test score from 50.2% (95% CI 47.8%-52.6%) on the pretest to 77.1% (95% CI 74.6%-79.7%) on the posttest immediately following the intervention. There also was an increase in the average number of correct responses on each item. The 3-month follow-up test similarly showed average test score improvement (75.4%). When asked how likely students would be to change their habits as a result of the intervention on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = extremely unlikely, 10 = extremely likely), the median was 6. When asked how likely students would be to encourage another to change their habits, the median was an 8.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence that a brief educational intervention can increase cancer literacy, improve cancer knowledge retention, and encourage behavior change in Appalachian Kentucky students. Increasing cancer literacy may result in increased participation in preventive cancer screenings and improved health habits, which could ultimately lower cancer rates in the region.
| S-EPMC8268063 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:We have previously reported on the prevalence of dietary supplements among college students; it was deduced that their intake of supplements increased according to their grade (i.e., 13.1% in the first grade to 20.5% in the sixth grade). We also reported that some students had experienced adverse events in Japan due to their intake of these supplements. However, awareness of dietary supplements among college students remains limited, even among pharmaceutical students. Being appropriately educated about them is important for pharmaceutical students, both for themselves as well as for their future careers as pharmacists. METHODS:We conducted a lecture-based educational intervention about dietary supplements on 328 college students in Japan-184 from pharmaceutical science and 144 from environmental science or food and life science disciplines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an educational intervention on college students' understanding of dietary supplements. The intervention involved a lecture that covered the quality of dietary supplements, how they differed from drugs, and a summary of their adverse events. The lecture was evaluated using a 14-question questionnaire. We then compared the pre- and post-intervention responses to the same questionnaire using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The questions were assessed using a Likert scale that ranged from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"; the latter being the preferred answer. RESULTS:Before the intervention had taken place, the students' understanding of dietary supplements was shown to be deficient. Conversely, post-intervention, their knowledge levels had significantly improved, especially concerning agreement on whether "Dietary supplements are safe because they are just food items". Pre-intervention, 2.7% strongly agreed and 37.5% agreed; post-intervention, 1.2% strongly agreed and 15.6% agreed. On whether "Dietary supplements made from natural ingredients or herbs are safe", at the pre-intervention stage 2.8% strongly agreed and 44.0% agreed and post-intervention, 2.2% strongly agreed and 16.9% agreed. On whether "Dietary supplements made from food items are safe", 4.0% strongly agreed and 43.6% agreed pre-intervention and 0.9% strongly agreed and 16.6% agreed post-intervention. Despite there being a greater number of pharmaceutical students who had a correct understanding of dietary supplements before the intervention, these students still showed improvement after the lecture. CONCLUSION:An intervention in the form of a single educational lecture has the capacity to improve college students' understanding of dietary supplements. It is important for pharmacists to be appropriately educated about dietary supplements when they consult with patients. We will evaluate the long-term effects of the intervention on the alumni (pharmacists) in a subsequent study.
| S-EPMC7204311 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study was aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among school-aged children in the Hubei province when children were being confined to their homes. The questionnaire included questions of KAP about COVID-19, depressive and anxiety symptoms scales. Multivariable generalized linear regressions models were applied to estimate the unstandardized regression coefficients (?) of KAP. The awareness rates about COVID-19 were 70.1% - 99.5% for all 1650 valid questionnaires. 37.2% of the participants quite worried about being infected with COVID-19. Approximately 96% of them washed hands in certain situations, while 85.6% of them washed hands after coughing or sneezing. Compared to the students without depressive symptoms, those who had depressive symptoms scored lower of total KAP, knowledge, attitudes, and practice. The findings suggest that primary students had a relatively good awareness of COVID-19 during the epidemic, as well as optimistic attitudes and appropriate practices. However, some items of appropriate practices still needed to be enhanced.
| S-EPMC7676362 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Kentucky experiences the highest overall cancer incidence and mortality rates in the USA with the greatest burden in the eastern, Appalachian region of the state. Cancer disparities in Kentucky are driven in part by poor health behaviors, poverty, lack of health care access, low education levels, and low health literacy. Individuals with inadequate health literacy are less likely to participate in preventive measures such as obtaining screenings and making healthy lifestyle choices, thus increasing their chances of developing and dying from cancer. By increasing cancer literacy among youth and adults, it may be possible to decrease cancer disparities across Kentucky. This study aimed to establish connections with middle and high schools in Kentucky that would facilitate pilot implementation of a brief cancer education intervention and assessment of cancer health literacy among these student populations. A baseline pretest cancer literacy survey consisting of 10 items was given to 349 participants, followed by the delivery of a cancer education presentation. Immediately following the presentation, participants were given a posttest with identical items to the pretest. Participants were primarily Caucasian (89.4%), female (68.7%), and in 10th through 12th grade (80.5%). Significant (p < 0.0001) increases in both average and median percent of correctly marked items were observed between the pretest and posttest (average, pretest = 56% versus posttest = 85%; median, pretest = 60% versus posttest = 90%). The scores for all individual items increased after the brief intervention. The results demonstrated a significant increase in cancer literacy levels immediately after the pilot educational intervention. We suggest that it may be possible to improve cancer literacy rates in Kentucky by integrating cancer education into middle and high school science and/or health education curricula. This could ultimately drive changes in behaviors that may help lower cancer incidence and mortality rates. Plans for future interventional studies measuring long-term cancer knowledge retention and resultant behavioral changes among middle and high school students as well as the feasibility of integrating cancer education into middle and high school curricula are also discussed.
| S-EPMC7388006 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Because children and adolescents are vulnerable to developing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), classroom teachers play an important role in the early identification and intervention in students with OCD. The present study aims to explore the recognition of OCD, general knowledge about this disorder, implications in the classroom, and stigmatizing attitudes among teachers, as well as the effectiveness of a brief educational intervention about OCD. Participants (n = 95; mean age = 43. 29 years old; 64.3% female) were primary and secondary school teachers who were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group. All of them completed a set of self-report questionnaires, read an educational fact sheet (either about OCD in the experimental group or about a healthy diet in the control group), and again completed the questionnaires. Results show that prior to the intervention, most of the teachers identified the contamination and order OCD symptoms described in a vignette as specific to OCD (82.1%) and would recommend talking about the problem (98.9%) and seeking help (94.7%). However, only a few (36.8%) knew about the most effective OCD treatments or identified compulsions as a main OCD symptom (33%). Moreover, only about half of the teachers correctly identified OCD's possible interference in classroom routines, such as delays to achieve perfection or concentration problems, and strategies for dealing with OCD, such as continuing with the class rhythm. Stigma levels were from low to moderate. After the brief educational intervention, participants in the experimental group increased their knowledge about OCD, improved their strategies for managing a student with OCD symptoms, and had fewer stigmatizing attitudes associated with pity (p < 0.05). These changes were not observed in the control group. We can conclude that this brief and easy-to-administer intervention is an effective educational intervention to significantly improve teachers' knowledge and attitudes, at least in the short-term. These results are especially relevant because OCD is associated with high interference and long delays in seeking treatment, and teachers have a unique opportunity to help with prevention, early identification, and recommending an adequate intervention for OCD.
| S-EPMC8206535 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionPrevention programs have not achieved the expected results in preventing mortality from breast and cervical cancer in Mexico. Therefore, we propose a complementary strategy.MethodologyAn educational strategy for high school students in Mexico (2011-2013) was designed (longitudinal design, two measurements and a single intervention). The postintervention assessment included: 1) knowledge acquired by students about cancer prevention and 2) The performance of the student as a health promoter in their household. The strategy was based on analysis of cases and developed in three sessions. An assessment tool was designed and validated (Test-Retest). The levels of knowledge according to the qualifications expected by chance were determined. Wilcoxon test compared results before and after intervention.ResultsAn assessment instrument with 0.80 reliability was obtained. 831 high school students were analyzed. Wilcoxon rank-sum test showed a significant learning after the intervention (Z = - 2.64, p = 0.008) with improvement of levels of knowledge in a 154.5%. 49% of students had a good performance as health promoters.ConclusionsThe learning in preventive measures is important to sensitize individuals to prevention campaigns against cancer. This strategy proved to improve the level of knowledge of students in an easy and affordable way.
| S-EPMC4721448 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Introduction: The development of knowledge and understanding in relation to movement and health is a basic requirement to facilitate lifelong engagement in physical activity with its accompanying possible health benefits. To train teachers in applying adequate strategies, implementation studies have often shown little acceptance of traditional top-down approaches. Thus, the purpose of the Health.edu project was to develop, implement and evaluate effective and feasible measures addressing students' health-related knowledge and understanding (HKU) in physical education (PE) via a participatory approach.Materials and Methods: For evaluation, a controlled pre-post-test study with 233 students from eight different secondary schools in Germany was carried out. Four schools (with two PE teachers at each school) comprised the intervention group and they participated in a 1-year participatory planning process to conceptualize and implement evidence-based PE lessons addressing students' HKU. Control schools carried out their regular PE lessons. Evaluation followed a mixed-methods research design, assessing program implementation via written documentary technique as well as program effectiveness using a standardized questionnaire.Results: Results show a significant intervention effect on students' HKU with a medium effect size. However, due to the participatory process, there were considerable differences between the intervention schools that were involved. Student's HKU improved most in schools where program implementation corresponded to relevant principles of fostering HKU.Discussion: The present study purposefully dispensed with any structured intervention programs for PE teachers to follow. The results show the potential effects of this participatory approach to strengthen student's HKU. However, the participatory planning does not always work in the intended manner, emphasizing that numerous contextual factors influence the implementation process.
| S-EPMC7193737 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Evidence about the effectiveness of school closures as a measure to control the spread of COVID-19 is controversial. We posit that schools are not an important source of transmission; thus, we analyzed two surveillance methods: a web-based questionnaire and a telephone survey that monitored the impact of the pandemic due to COVID-19 cases in Bogotá, Colombia. We estimated the cumulative incidences for Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) and COVID-19 for each population group. Then, we assessed the differences using the cumulative incidence ratio (CIR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI95%). The ARI incidence among students was 20.1 times higher when estimated from the telephone survey than from the online questionnaire (CIR: 20.1; CI95% 17.11-23.53). Likewise, the ARI incidence among schoolteachers was 10 times higher in the telephone survey (CIR: 9.8; CI95% 8.3-11.5). the incidence of COVID-19 among schoolteachers was 4.3 times higher than among students in the online questionnarie (CIR: 4.3, CI95%: 3.8-5.0) and 2.1 times higher in the telephone survey (CIR = 2.1, CI95%: 1.8-2.6), and this behavior was also observed in the general population data. Both methods showed a capacity to detect COVID-19 transmission among students and schoolteachers, but the telephone survey estimates were probably closer to the real incidence rate.
| S-EPMC8657140 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundEffective mentoring is an important component of medical student professional development. We provide a description of the mentoring program at our institution.MethodsOur institution UTHSCSA implemented a student-advising program (Veritas) with clinical faculty mentors and senior students (MiMs). The MiMs provided vertical peer mentoring to more junior students as an adjunct to faculty advising. The MiMs lead small group discussions that foster camaraderie, share academic and career information and promote professional identity. An optional MiM elective more intensively develops mentorship and leadership skills through a formal curriculum. The authors used annual survey data of all students as well as student mentors to evaluate program effectiveness.ResultsOverall, student perception of the program improved each year across multiple domains, including feeling more prepared, supported and satisfied with their overall experience in medical school. Student mentors also found the process rewarding and helpful to their future careers as physicians.ConclusionsThe authors suggest implementing a vertical peer-mentoring program can be an effective adjunct to faculty mentoring.
| S-EPMC5414204 | biostudies-literature