ABSTRACT
Health is a basic need of life; therefore, health education is necessary if people are to enjoy a worthwhile life style. Since people are the immediate beneficiaries of health education activities and need to live a productive life in school and after school years, there is need to evaluate health education outcomes to ascertain whether health education programme achieved its set objectives. The study evaluated health education outcomes among people in Ilorin metropolis Kwara State. The questionnaire contained 20 statements on health knowledge, 20 on health attitude, and 20 on health practice. Descriptive statistical technique was used in this study. The major findings of this study showed that:
• Health knowledge among people of Kwara State was positive while their health attitude and practice were not positive.
• Male people had better health knowledge than their female counterparts signifying the effects of gender on health knowledge.
However, their health attitude and practice were not significantly affected by gender.
It was inferred from the findings of the study that health knowledge improves health attitude and practice in formal health education program. Adequate health facilities and conducive teaching and learning environment promote health education outcome in secondary schools. There is the urgent need to improve health services in order to create an enabling environment for good health practice and appraisal of health habits and skills. There is also need to improve teaching and learning facilities, most especially in rural areas where such facilities are grossly inadequate. The socio-cultural inhibitions and restriction generally found among girls that make access to information limited be identified and removed to make teaching and learning gender free.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• Introduction
Health is a basic need of life which helps individuals in full utilization of all other facilities that make life better, richer and more meaningful. Since health is perceived in this sense, health education, which prepares individuals to value health as a desirable asset, is necessary if people are to live/enjoy a worthwhile lifestyle. People are the immediate beneficiaries of the health education activities and therefore should have that awareness in order to live a productive life in the school and after school years. It is in this context that Ademuwagum Ademuwagum, Ajala, Oke, Moronkola, and Jegede (2002) commented that “Health education can be described as a concept, discipline, and course of study, approach or method by which right health information is made available to people and simultaneously stimulating positive health attitude and practices in them”. Turner (1971) on the other hand, viewed health education “as the sum of one’s experiences which favorably influences health attitude, health practices and health knowledge”. Pp. 10 – 15.
In short, health education is primarily concerned with actions of the individual to value health and to lead a worthwhile life style. This is only
possible in schools when health education objectives are realized. The consensus among health educators is that health knowledge, health attitudes and health practices are health education outcomes in schools (Bucher, 1991; Petty, 2001). Public expectations of such outcomes are always very high. Therefore, evaluating these outcomes would certainly indicate the extent to which they are realized in Nigeria. The general belief has been that health education programmes of secondary schools produce limited desirable results, especially in health attitudes and practices.
However, such beliefs are not supported by any objective evidence. It is, therefore, necessary to find out the changes that are brought by health education programmes in the people in terms of the set goals, no matter what they may be. Health education programmes have similar goals all over the world, but policies and implementation processes might differ. And even where similarities exist, the resources supporting them differ, especially in developing nations of the world. In short, desirable health benefits accruing from such programmes vary from place to place.
Nigerian Secondary Schools today do not seem to perform up to expectation even with the acclaimed comprehensive health education activities (Sanusi & Igbanugo, 2001). Desirable changes are not visible in the people’ standard of health attitudes and practices they maintain. Studies in this field are limited in Nigeria and Kwara in particular. There is no evidence to show significant impact of the health education activities on the health and wellbeing of the people in our secondary schools or to indicate whether it has achieved its set objectives. Therefore, it is the researcher’s belief that only when health education outcomes (health knowledge, attitude and practice) of secondary schools in Kwara State and Nigeria at large are thoroughly and objectively evaluated, can we be certain of the significant progress made on the impact of the stated outcomes on health and life style of people. It is in this context that evaluation of environmental health education outcomes in Kwara State is necessary.
• Statement of the Problem
Health education is diverse in scope. It encompasses all those activities and practices aimed at achieving a physical and social environment conducive to good health, prevention of diseases and minimize negative behaviours through appropriate practices; and also to make people active participants in their care as well as in their operation of the actions of the systems through evaluation. The accomplishment of the set objectives of environmental health education in secondary schools will determine to a large extent desirable health knowledge, attitudes and practices of the people. However, the planned health education activities do not seem to produce the perceived desirable health education outcomes (Ajisafe, 1980). The general wellbeing and lifestyle of people, particularly in Kwara State, do not seem to reflect positive health outcome (Sanusi and Igbanugo, 2001). Observable health behaviours seem to be generally poor. It is these and similar reasons that prompted the investigator to evaluate health education outcomes in secondary schools in Kwara State.
The specific focus of this study was on health knowledge, health attitude and health practices of people in the secondary schools of Kwara State. This became necessary because of the fact that little has been reported on health education outcomes, particularly in secondary schools in Nigeria in general and specifically in Kwara State. This research work attempts to answer the following research questions.
• Research Questions
• Are secondary school people in Kwara State knowledgeable about health matters?
• Does health knowledge among people in Kwara State influence their attitude towards health?
• Does their attitude towards health influence their health practices?
• Does health knowledge among secondary school people in Kwara State influence their health practices?
• Purpose of the Study
The specific purposes of this study are:
• To assess people’ level of factual health knowledge.
• To assess people’ level of desirable health attitude.
• To assess people’ level of desirable health practice.
• To find out relationship between health knowledge, attitude and practices.
• Question 1
Health knowledge, attitude and practices among people of Kwara State are not positive.
• Hypothesis 1
• Health knowledge, attitude and practices among people of Kwara State are not related to each other.
• Health knowledge, attitude and practices among people of Kwara State are not affected by their class level, gender and geographical location.
• Significance of the Study
• Most secondary schools of Kwara State offer comprehensive health education programme with well-defined objectives. It is not clear whether the secondary school people of Kwara State really benefit from this programme. In other words, it is not well established whether the objectives of the programme, which include knowledge, attitude and practice, are achieved. As this study was concerned with the evaluation of the outcomes of environmental health education of secondary schools in Kwara State, it will show whether the people have expected health knowledge, attitude and practices.
• The primary outcomes of the secondary health education programme have been shown to be health knowledge, attitude and practices. It is not clear whether each of these outcomes has any influence on the other outcomes. The results of the study will show whether these outcomes are related to each other.
• A number of demographic variables seem to affect the extent of benefits that the people of secondary schools can derive from their health education programmes. It is not well understood whether such beliefs that the people derive from health education programme depend on their grade, gender and geographical location they come from. The results of this study will show whether the magnitude of benefits that the people derive varies with their demographic variables.
• The study may bring to light issues concerning health education programme of secondary schools as they affect knowledge, attitude and practices of the people. These issues may be investigated in future.
• Delimitations of the Study
The concern of this study was the evaluation of environmental health education outcomes among people in Ilorin metropolis Kwara State. Therefore, this study was delimited to the following:
• The health education outcomes included health knowledge, attitude and practices.
• Two third of the people in Ilorin metropolis of the two education zones of Kwara State were used for the sample. This is exactly 17 out of 26 people in Ilorin metropolis in Biu and Monguno education zones of Kwara State.
• This study was delimited to people in Ilorin metropolis because of the assumption that people are exposed to health education at the junior level. By the time they enter senior secondary school, they must have benefited from health education programme they underwent at the junior secondary school level. It is, therefore, appropriate to evaluate health education outcomes at senior secondary school level.
• Limitations of the Study
This study had the following limitations, which would be considered while interpreting the results:
• The responses of the statement in the questionnaire could not be verified, but care was taken to ensure that the respondents understood every statement in its purported sense.
• It was not possible to include all health education outcomes in the study especially health skills because of time constraints.
• Kwara State has co-educational schools, purely girls schools and purely boys schools. In comparing responses of boys and girls, it was not possible to separate girls of girls schools from girls of co- educational schools.
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