Dengue Awareness in Capiz

Chapter One is divided into five parts: (1) Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, (2) Statement of the Problem and Hypothesis, (3) Significance of the Study, (4) Definition of Terms, and (5) Delimitation of the Study. Part One, Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, presents the rationale and the reason why the study is being conducted. Likewise, it describes the theoretical basis of the study and as well as the conceptual framework. Part Two, Statement of the Problem and Hypothesis, describes the purpose in conducting the study and enumerates the specific objectives of the study. It specifies the hypothesis to be tested in the study. Part Three, Significance of the Study, specifies the beneficiaries and the benefits they can derive from the findings of the study. Part Four, Definition of Terms, list alphabetically and define terms for the purposes of clarity and understanding. The terms are defined both conceptually and operationally. Part Five, Delimitation of the Study, identifies the coverage of the study in terms of purpose, variables, subjects, research design, research instruments used, and statistical tools.

Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study

Dengue fever is a serious and infectious disease spread by certain mosquitoes. It is very common today and people do not even know how to prevent it. This disease is very deadly. This study is anchored in Morel’s theory stating that the need for a thorough understanding of behaviors related to management of the larval habitats of the main dengue vector, as well as treatment-seeking behavior, are very crucial. Dengue is a disease caused by a virus. It can be acquired if an infected mosquito bites a person. It is common in warm, wet areas in the world. Outbreaks occur in the rainy season. Dengue is very common in warm areas. Symptoms include high fever, headaches, joint and muscle pain, vomiting, and a rash. Most people with dengue recover with in two weeks. Until then, drinking lots of fluids, resting, and taking non-aspirin fever reducing medicines might help.

Sometimes dengue turns into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which causes bleeding from your nose, gums or under your skin. It can also become dengue shock syndrome, which causes massive bleeding and shock. These forms of dengue are life-threatening (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 2007). WHO stated that the burden of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades, and it is currently classified as an emerging or re-emerging infectious disease. Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome occur in over 100 countries, with more than 2.5 billion people at risk and an estimated 50 million infections per year (World Health Organization, 2002).

Figure 1. Factors affecting the knowledge and preventive practices towards dengue fever among high school students.

Statement of the Problem and Hypothesis

This study aimed to determine the knowledge and preventive practices toward dengue fever among Dumalag Central National High School students. Specifically, this study seeks answers to the following questions: 1. What is the level of knowledge of high school students toward dengue fever? 2. What are the preventive practices of high school students toward dengue fever? 3. Is there a significant difference in the knowledge towards dengue fever of students when grouped according to age, gender, year level, and socio-economic status? 4. Is there a significant difference in the preventive practices towards dengue fever of students when grouped according to age, gender, year level, and socio-economic status? 5. Is there a significant relationship between the knowledge and preventive practices of students towards dengue fever?

In the view of the preceding problems, the following hypotheses were formulated: 1. There is no significant difference in the knowledge towards dengue fever of students when grouped according to age, gender, year level, and socio-economic status. 2. There is no significant difference in the preventive practices towards dengue fever of students when grouped according to age, gender, year level, and socio-economic status. 3. There is no significant relationship between the knowledge and preventive practices toward dengue fever among high school students.

Significance of the Study

The findings of the study were of importance to the Department of Health, public and private principals, medical doctors, Local Government Units, and future researchers. The result of the study yielded significant information on the knowledge and preventive practices towards dengue fever. Department of Health may benefit from the results of the study by using this study as a basis of information for an analysis in a certain area. Public and private principals may benefit from this study for its significant results may alert them for such illness. The principals may impose programs that would prevent dengue from affecting their students and their faculty. Medical doctors may benefit from this study when they will be having a high school student as a patient affected by dengue fever. The result will inform them about the cause of dengue and the student’s knowledge and preventive practices towards this deadly illness. Local Government Units may also benefit from this study for they will know what preventive practices are done by high school students in their area. They could recommend their residents in protecting themselves from this harmful disease. Future researchers may benefit from this study by making it a guide and a reference for similar studies in the future.

Definition of Terms

For the purpose of clarity and better understanding, the following terms were defined conceptually and operationally: Dengue Fever is an acute infectious disease caused by a virus and transmitted by the bite of the Aedes mosquito; it is also known as break bone fever and bone-crusher disease. The disease occurs in both epidemic and sporadic form in warm climates (Brueschke, 1988). In this study, dengue fever was the main topic where the researcher measured the knowledge and preventive practices of high school students. Knowledge is the accumulated facts, truths, principles, and information to which the human mind has access (Good, 1959).

In this study, knowledge refers to the things that the students know about dengue fever. Preventive Practices are actions taken to person against any possible harm or trouble (Twyford, 2003). In this study, preventive practices referred to the actions evaluated to protect oneself against the harmful disease, which is the dengue fever. Student is one who attends an educational institution of secondary or higher levels (Good, 1959). In this study, the Dumalag Central National High School students represented as respondents of the study.

Delimitation of the Study

The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge and preventive practices towards dengue fever among Dumalag Central National High School students. The subjects of this study were the 212 high school students of Dumalag Central National High School. This study was conducted on December 2008. This study focused on the age, gender, year level, and socio-economic status as the independent variables; and knowledge and preventive practices as the dependent variables. The data needed for this investigation were gathered through the use of a researcher-made questionnaire- Knowledge Questionnaire and Preventive Practices Questionnaire. To describe the data that were gathered, the mean and standard deviation were use for descriptive analysis. For inferential analysis, t-test and One-Way ANOVA were use. The level of significance was set at 0.05. All statistical computations were computer-process using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Software.

Chapter 2
Review of Related Literatures

Chapter Two includes seven parts: (1) Knowledge and Practices Regarding
Dengue Fever, (2) Mosquitoes, (3) Epidemiology of Dengue Fever, (4) Prevention of the Disease, and (5) Signs and Symptoms.

Knowledge and Practices Regarding Dengue Fever in Thailand
Although the level of dengue knowledge was high in Kamphaeng Phet Province, Thailand, we found only little evidence that this knowledge was put into practice. Only knowledge of preventive measures had a significant and beneficial effect on container protection practice. Conversely, better container management practice did have a considerable impact on Aedes aegypti populations. Measures that prevent mosquitoes from developing in water-holding containers, such as adding anti-mosquito repellants to containers, covering containers, and/or placing larvivorous fish in containers, were effective in reducing Aedis aegypti pupae. One should keep in mind that the most effective control measure should be compatible with water use practices. Larval control measures also had a considerable impact on the adult populations, whereas preventive measures against adult mosquitoes had no effect or seemed to have effects opposite of what was desired (Tuiten et. al, 2006).

Compared with studies in other parts of Thailand, knowledge of dengue disease symptoms was slightly lower. Especially the dengue specific symptoms of bleeding/rash, which were mentioned by only 29% compared with 77% in Chiang Mai Province and 48% in Mae Sot. This could indicate that people are not always able to distinguish dengue infection from other diseases. Knowledge of Ae. aegypti development sites was comparable to or slightly higher than in other Thai studies. Interestingly, in our study coconut shells were mentioned by roughly half of the respondents as important source for mosquito breeding, whereas they only accounted for 0.2% of breeding containers in the entomologic survey. This may be explained by the fact that coconut shells received relatively much attention in recent education campaigns in Kamphaeng Phet Province. Knowledge of measures to prevent dengue was similar compared with the other Thai studies (Tuiten et. al, 2006). Previous studies have reported conflicting results regarding the effects of knowledge on dengue prevention practices. Some studies have shown that dengue knowledge was associated with an increased use of preventive measures against the disease and a reduced number of development sites for vector larvae.

Other studies found a significant reduction in the Aedes aegypti infestation index after community-based prevention campaigns. Consistent with our results, however, were studies in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Trinidad en Tobago that found little or no correlation between knowledge of dengue and levels of Aedes aegypti abundance as measured by larval surveys (Tuiten et. al, 2006). Previous investigators measured knowledge of dengue in various ways. Some determine knowledge of dengue by knowledge of the disease, whereas others included knowledge of the vector and control measures. A few investigators used a score to measure overall dengue knowledge. We used both methods in our study. An overall dengue knowledge score was calculated to use as an independent variable in ordinal regression and as a dependent variable in our linear models. Knowledge of symptoms, development sites, and preventive measures were included as independent variables in our statistical analyses. In this way, we obtained a robust picture of the various relations between knowledge, practices, and vector populations (Tuiten et. al, 2006).