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Tuesday, 19 November 2013: 8:50 AM
Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to understand the importance of measuring baseline knowledge before developing an educational intervention.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to understand the importance of the language to be used for the educational intervention in a low-literacy multi-language community.
Tuberculosis has been declared a disease of priority in South Africa. One contributing factor is low levels of literacy and health literacy in the adult population. The Department of Health acknowledges that more than 8 million South Africans may not be able to benefit from behaviour change material that is designed for the general population due to low literacy. One medium where the ability to read is negated is a DVD. The research question explored was whether an English or Sepedi DVD is more effective to improve tuberculosis related knowledge and practices in adults in Mamelodi. The theoretical basis of the study was the Communication Behaviour Change Model, Pawlak Health’s Literacy Model and the Principles of Teaching Adults with Low Literacy. A quasi-experimental pre-post design was used to obtain evidence of the effectiveness of a Sepedi or English DVD to improve the tuberculosis related knowledge and practices of 60 apparently healthy adults living in Mamelodi (n = 60). The data gathering method was self report using a validated questionnaire. A structured interview was used to gather the data. The pre-post testing period was 6 weeks. Data analysis was done with descriptive statistics and the non-parametric chi-square test. The p-value chosen was 0.05 to indicate a significant difference. The findings of the study indicate that some aspects of tuberculosis such as transmission, night sweating, curability and health service points are well known but other aspects such as the cause of tuberculosis, healthy practices regarding phlegm spitting, the relationship regarding HIV and tuberculosis, MDR or XDR tuberculosis or the DOT programme were not well known. The Sepedi DVD was more effective in improving the participants’ tuberculosis related knowledge and practices.