Impact of ‘ areca nut awareness’ module on middle school children

Author: 
Dr. Apeksha S. Dhole (Balpande) and Dr. Rahul Bhowate

Areca nut and Tobacco are known carcinogen and addictive agent. Areca nut causes oral submucous fibrosis, a premalignant condition which worsens patient’s life. School is a key location for children to educate regarding health, nutrition, hygiene. Increased addiction to areca nut necessitates introducing education of addiction ill effects at an early age.
Aim: To evaluate the effect of areca nut awareness module on school children.
Method: This cross –sectional, interventional study was initiated after approval from Institutional Ethics Committee. All the 4th, 5th and 6th standard students who fulfil the inclusion criteria were included in the study by convenience sampling.
Prevalidated knowledge (K) and attitude (A) questionnaire was distributed in students. Then students were intervened using prevalidated areca nut awareness module. Post interventional KA questionnaire assessment was done after 4th week.
The analysis was performed using SPSS version 20.0 (IBM Corp.)software.
Conclusion- Knowledge was found to be increased but not attitude. To change the attitude similar such workshops are needed.

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DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2020.21652.4260
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