Análise de uma ação educativa integrada ao controle da dengue em uma escola pública no município de Teófilo Otoni - MG

Abstract

Dengue is configured as one of the most important diseases of an epidemic around the word. The increasing incidence of dengue in Brazil demonstrates an inefficient control in the cities, which historically follow program guidelines established by the Ministry of Health, without success. Given the complexity of control the disease, highlights the need for studies that guide educational practice models that are able to integrate the various social actors for disease vector control. The present study described the method and the results of an educational home for the prevention of dengue, held with students from fifth grade of elementary education at a public school in an endemic area in the city of Teofilo Otoni – MG. The aim was to test one of the same educational methodology and its influence in efforts to prevent dengue fever, as measured by the change of knowledge and indirectly in the care of students participating households. It is a quantitative and qualitative research observational, descriptive and exploratory. The study included four groups of both the morning for a total of 108 students. The investigation involved the manipulation of experimental conditions of a health educational activity consists of four components: lecture on dengue, video Animadengue, distribution Evidengue® cover and a leaflet about the disease and the cover. Each condition was manipulated in one of the four classes separately. The experimental condition assigned to each class was defined by drawing lots, without the presence of the researcher who gave a lecture on dengue. To assess students’ knowledge about the disease, a subsample of 40 students (10 from each class) was selected for an interview before and after the educational activity. The interview consisted of questions on three primary aspects of the student’s knowledge about the disease: 1) the concept of dengue; 2) the mode of transmission and 3) the means of prevention. In addition to students, teachers of these classes of agents and endemic diseases in the survey were also interviewed. Before and after school educational activities, field observers visited the homes of 93 students (86,1% of the sample) to investigate the vulnerability of the backyards of homes to the cover Evidengue®. Adoption was defined as verification by observers, proficient use of the cap in one or more potted plants in each of the homes visited. The results of the interviews reveal satisfactory level of knowledge about dengue, mainly on ways of prevention. The result of home visits showed the presence of a large number of houses with the presence of breeding sites with potential for proliferation of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, with 89,3% in the first scan, 70% in the second and 68% in the third. The adoption of resource families Evidengue® was not relevant in the study relative to the small number of houses where there were potted plants, resulting in only 6% of families who have adopted the feature in the first scan and 4,5% in the second scan