Asian Journal of Nursing Education and Research

M. Vidya ¹, Aswathy Devi ¹, Sheela Williams ¹, Usha M. Thomas ¹

Affiliations
1 JSS College of Nursing, Mysore, IN

Abstract

Background of the Study: Organ Donation is one of the most spectacular endeavors till date. Organ Donation from deceased persons has been performed since 1964. Since then, there is chronic shortage for organs and low response to deceased organ donation. Though the first deceased organ transplant was conducted nearly five years ago in Karnataka, such donations still remain a sporadic event in the state.14 Human cadavers for purpose of study are at scarcity with mushrooming of medical institutions in this country. Teaching and research in Anatomy is mainly based on cadaver dissection. The concept of awareness of VBD (Voluntary Body Donation) in large scale is uttermost necessity of the hour.2

Aim: The aim of the is to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding organ and body donation among high school teachers at government and private rural schools of Mysuru city with a view to organize an awareness programme.

Methods: In the study Descriptive study design is used and Cluster sampling technique was adopted to select 120 high school teachers from government and private rural high school of Mysuru city. Pilot Study was conducted, the tool and study design were found to be feasible. The knowledge and attitude level was measured by using structured knowledge questionnaire and attitude scale .The tool was validated by experts and reliability was established by test-retest method. Awareness programme was conducted to all samples. The data was collected and analyzed by using Descriptive and Inferential statistics.

Results: Results of the study revealed that, the majority of the high school teachers had average knowledge and positive attitude regarding organ and body donation. Correlation coefficient between knowledge and attitude (r=0.98) scores was significant at 0.05 level inferring that knowledge and attitude are interrelated. Chi square value to find the association between knowledge and attitude with their selected personal variables showed that no selected personal variables were associated with the knowledge level of high school teachers and only gender had significant association with the attitude level of the high school teachers regarding organ and body donation.

Conclusion: The findings of this study and literature supports the need for multiple health education strategies and campaigns to rural people as there is huge shortage of organs and cadavers. It is essential to stress the need to motivate high school teachers through them to their young students and to the community to attend more awareness programmes and to register themselves to donate organs and their body. A media campaign to increase knowledge and change the attitudes of rural high school teachers is imperative.

Keywords

High School Teachers, Awareness Programme, Organ And Body Donation.

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Amal Mathews ¹, Janet Mathias ¹, Usha M. Thomas ¹, Sheela Williams ¹, Anitha V. Noronha ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, JSS College of Nursing, Mysore, Karnataka, IN

Abstract

Over the decades, the prevalence of obesity among adults and children have increased dramatically and it has now reached at its extreme proportion and stands as a major contributor to the global burden of chronic disease and disability. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of obesity and to examine the impact of an awareness program on knowledge and attitude of college students regarding obesity. The prevalence of obesity was determined among 300 college students. In the study, quasi experimental non equivalent control group pretest posttest design was used and non probability convenience sampling technique was adopted to select 90 samples, 45 each in experimental and control group. Anthropometric measurements i.e. the height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference of the college students were measured by using standardized weighing machine and measuring tape. Structured knowledge questionnaire and structured attitude scale was used to assess the knowledge and attitude of college students regarding obesity. An awareness program was conducted for the experimental group. The analysis of the findings revealed that the overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be 20.00% and 4.77% respectively which puts young females at high risk and claims prior attention. The pretest findings showed that most of the college students had poor knowledge and favourable attitude towards obesity. The awareness program was effective in increasing the knowledge and changing the attitude of college students regarding obesity as the computed 't' (t44=19.32) value was found to be significant at 0.05 level of significance. It was also clear from the findings of the study that there was no significant relation between the knowledge and attitude of college students regarding obesity. There was no association between the pretest level of knowledge of college students with their selected personal variables except for type of family, occupation of parents, childhood eating habits and family history of obesity. None of the personal variables showed significant association with the pretest attitude scores except routine aerobic physical activity. It was concluded that, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing in an alarming rate among college going students and awareness program was effective in enhancing the knowledge and promoting a positive attitude towards obesity among college students. Therefore the study recommends that, it is the need of this hour to organize health campaigns and awareness programs to sensitize young adults to enhance the knowledge and attitude on healthy food habits, healthy lifestyles and a physically active daily routine thereby enabling them to be a healthy citizenry.

Keywords

Obesity, Prevalence, College Students.

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Linta T. Abraham ¹, Usha M. Thomas ¹, Sheela Williams ¹, V. N. Anitha ¹, Janet Mathias ¹

Affiliations
1 JSS College of Nursing, Mysore, IN

Abstract

Background: Non-communicable diseases and their associated risk factors have emerged rapidly and are becoming a major public health challenge worldwide. Prevalence of risk factors for non communicable diseases in childhood and adolescence bears significant tendency towards the development of disease in adulthood.

Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the lifestyle associated risk factors for selected non communicable diseases and to determine the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on health promotive behaviors among adolescents in the selected PU colleges of Mysore.

Methods: Research design adopted for the study was exploratory survey in phase I and quasi experimental, non equivalent control group, pre test post test design in the phase II. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the adolescents for the study. Structured life style assessment scale was used to collect the data regarding the life style associated risk factors of 200 adolescents. Knowledge of adolescents regarding HPB was assessed using SKQ.

Results: The results of the study revealed that majority of adolescents (61.5%) were having moderate life style associated risk for selected non communicable diseases. Findings also revealed that structured teaching programme regarding health promotive behaviors was an effective strategy to increase the knowledge of adolescents as indicated by the computed 't' value which was statistically significant at 0.05 level of significance (t(78)=13.252; p<0.05). Study findings also revealed that adolescents from higher socioeconomic classes with good parental education had better knowledge regarding health promotive behaviours.

Conclusion: Structured teaching programme was effective in increasing the knowledge of adolescents regarding health promotive behaviours and the study finding stresses the increasing responsibility of health professionals in planning and implementing various educational strategies to improve the knowledge of adolescents.

Keywords

Lifestyle, Non Communicable Diseases, Structured Teaching Programme, Health Promotive Behaviors, Adolescents.

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