Knowledge of Rural Secondary School Students on First Aid Following Educational Intervention

Introduction: School life is an important part of children’s lives, which has a direct impact on their physical and mental health. Knowledge of health promotion and prevention activities encourages initiating first aid activities in society.

Objective: To assess the level of knowledge of rural secondary school students following educational intervention on first aid.

Methodology: A quasi-experimental study was carried out among 320 secondary school students. Educational intervention on first aid was applied to compare the level of knowledge before and after the intervention. Data were collected by a self-administered structured questionnaire through randomly selected students.

Results: Findings showed that most of the respondents (84.2%) were between 12-15 years old and their mean age was 14.3 years. It was also found that the majority 159 (58.5%) of the respondents were male and the rest of them 113 (41.5%) were female. Regarding family type distribution, the majority 192 (70.6%) of the respondents lived in a nuclear family and 80 (29.4%) belong to joint family. In addition, 43 (15.8%) students' fathers were farmers, 74 (27.2%) were businessmen and 43 (15.8%) were day laborers. Regarding textbook knowledge on first aid 270 (99.3%) respondents knew the meaning of first aid, 232 (85.3%) students gave their opinion about cleaning the skin with Dettol or savlon in case of injury and 228 (83.8%) students answered that bleeding should be reduced by applying pressure with a clean cloth. The study found that 22 (8.1%) respondents had a good knowledge of first aid interventions before the intervention while after the intervention, a good level of knowledge was found amongst 189 (69.5%) students. The study revealed that the use of ice during injury management was not significantly (c2 =0.529, p˃ 0.05) associated with the level of first aid knowledge statistically before the intervention while after first aid intervention, there was a significant association (c2 =7.235, p˂ 0.05).

Conclusion: Educational intervention on first aid improves the level of knowledge among secondary school students. Necessary measures should be taken to encourage health promotion and prevention activities during practical life.