Assessment of the implementation of health education in primary health care facilities, Kavango, East Region, Namibia
https://doi.org/10.4081/jphia.2023.2248
Accepted: 13 July 2022
HTML: 2
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Background. Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities are critical in preventing, detecting, and managing sickness and injury, thereby lowering morbidity and mortality. This is easily accomplished through health education, which is one of the most effective disease prevention methods.
Objective. The goal of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the health education technique in PHC facilities in the Kavango East Region.
Materials and Methods. A quantitative method was used in conjunction with a descriptive cross-sectional design to evaluate the implementation of health education in PHC facilities in the Kavango East Region.
Results. The outcomes show that 76% of patients who visit health facilities did not receive health education about their condition, and those who did receive health education know six times more about how to prevent the conditions they are suffering from than those who did not. The study also found that 49.14% of patients got information that was irrelevant to their conditions. These results indicate a statistically significant relationship (2.32 OR 0.93 at 95% CI) between patients who did not receive health education and frequent visits to the PHC facility with the same complaints.
Conclusion. There is a lack of health education implementation in PHC facilities, with patients not getting or being provided with relevant health education to empower them to take care of their own health. The emphasis of PHC centers is on curative services rather than preventative and rehabilitation services. PHC facilities must improve health education as a critical approach to health promotion and disease prevention. This will allow patients to take appropriate preventive measures, resulting in fewer trips to PHC facilities.
2. World Health Organization. A vision for primary health care in the 21st century: towards universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. No. WHO/HIS/SDS/2018.15. World Health Organization, 2018.
3. Bauer, Ursula E., et al. "Prevention of chronic disease in the 21st century: elimination of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability in the USA." The Lancet 384.9937 (2014): 45-52.
4. Samb, Badara, et al. "Prevention and management of chronic disease: a litmus test for health-systems strengthening in low-income and middle-income countries." The Lancet 376.9754 (2010): 1785-1797.
5. Moreno-Peral, Patricia, et al. "Primary care patients’ perspectives of barriers and enablers of primary prevention and health promotion—a meta-ethnographic synthesis." PloS one 10.5 (2015): e0125004.
6. Martinez, Catalina, et al. "The implementation of health promotion in primary and community care: a qualitative analysis of the ‘Prescribe Vida Saludable’strategy." BMC family practice 18.1 (2017): 1-13.
7. Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) (nd). Primary Health Care
Services [cited 2019 November]. Available from: http://www.mhss.gov.na/national- directorates/Primary-Health-Care-Service...
8. Kumar, Sanjiv, and G. S. Preetha. "Health promotion: an effective tool for global health." Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine 37.1 (2012): 5.
9. Pati, S., et al. "Practicing health promotion in primary care–a reflective enquiry." Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene 58.4 (2017): E288.
10. Amiri, Mohammad, et al. "The impact of setting the standards of health promoting hospitals on hospital indicators in Iran." PloS one 11.12 (2016): e0167459.
11. Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS). Primary Health Care Services [2019 September]. Available from: http://www.mhss.gov.na/national- directorates/Primary-Health-Care-Service...
12. Berkowitz, Eric N. Essentials of health care marketing. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2021.
13. Guzek, Marika, et al. "'Value of Primary Health Care'project: patient education in primary health care setting." International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) 19 (2019).
14. Fasoranti, Afolabi Joseph, and Mayowa Festus Adeyeye. "Health education as a tool for effective primary health care services in Nigeria." Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 6.7 (2015): 225-228.
15. Tsolekile, Lungiswa P., et al. "The roles of community health workers in management of non-communicable diseases in an urban township." African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine 6.1 (2014): 1-8.
16. Visagie S, Schneider M. Implementation of the principles of primary health care in a rural area of South Africa. Afr J Prm Health Care Fam Med. 2014;6(1), Art. #562, 10 pages. http:// dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm. v6i1.562
17. Yanling J, Wenjie X, Xianghui L, Hai Z, Xin G. Awareness and its influencing factors of the relative knowledge towards infectious diseases among middle school students in Beijing, China. Chin J School Health. 2014; 8:1218–20
18. Wang, M., Fang, H. The effect of health education on knowledge and behavior toward respiratory infectious diseases among students in Gansu, China: a quasi-natural experiment. BMC Public Health.2020: 20, 681. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889- 020-08813-3 on 20/07/2021
Copyright (c) 2023 the Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Downloads
Citations
