Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

 

The effects of a health education program on children's health knowledge and reactions to routine health care Public Deposited

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/7p88ck49d

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  • Contrasted to the rich body of literature on ill children in medical settings, well children's reactions to routine health care has drawn little attention. This study assessed healthy children's under standing of their bodies, medical procedures, and how this knowledge relates to their behavior during routine health care. The study also investigated the impact of a six-week health education program upon children's health knowledge and behavior during routine health care. The three-group experimental design consisted of 53 children (ages 4 and 5) enrolled in three preschools in Corvallis, Oregon. Children in Group I participated in a six-week health education program and home learning activities. The program was drawn from selected units from the Preschool Health Education Project (PHEP) curriculum. Children in Group II received only the home learning materials. Children in Group III served as the control group and received no health instruction of any kind. Data included pre-and posttest measures of children's cognition level for health concepts (Bibace & Walsh, 1980), and health knowledge, as well as behavior and anxiety level during routine health examinations. The findings indicate that health education has a definite impact on children's health knowledge. Preschoolers exposed to selected units of the PHEP curriculum for a period of six weeks demonstrated greater knowledge on measures of body parts and self-care behaviors than children in a control group. Preschoolers who received only the home learning activities also demonstrated greater knowledge than the control group, but not as much as children who participated in the inschool health curriculum. Group membership, not cognition level for health concepts, significantly affected children's health knowledge. Thus, the current study demonstrates the short-range possibilities of PHEP in increasing health knowledge. Contrasted to previous studies depicting routine health examinations as a source of distress for children, the majority of children in the current study were calm and cooperative with medical procedures during health examinations and physiological measures of anxiety indicated no apparent anxiety. Because of the lack of variability in children's behavior and anxiety the effect of health knowledge on children's anxiety and behavior during health examinations could not be fully explored.
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