An examination of the effect of health promotion plan in high school students’ on knowledge and performance on peers suffering from asthma in high schools of district 3 in Esfahan, 2010

BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most prevalent disease during childhood, known as the most important reason for children's disability adolescences truancies, thanks to their hospitalization and as a result intensification of disease symptom. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present study is quasi-experimental kind, implemented with two groups. Sampling method was straightforward. 80 student's second-grade high school students constitute participants. Both groups were homogenized considering age, gender, education, and parent's vocation. First of all, a letter agreement was received from students. Then, the knowledge and accomplishment of students were measured by means of relevant questionnaire and checklist in advance of educational intervention. In the next step, during 4 sessions, educational content specified beforehand was presented to students via interview, lecture, group discussion, and display methods. The knowledge and accomplishment of both groups’ students was measured through questionnaire and checklist. Finally, the data was analyzed by SPSS 16 and statistical test of t-paired, independent-t, man-Whitney, and ANOVA. RESULTS: The finding demonstrated that group's student accomplishment registered 91.8 ± 1.3 while being 2.2 ± 0.6 before holding session. In addition, their knowledge increased significantly, registering 99.6 ± 1.2 while it had measured as 1.3 ± 0.3 before sessions. The results of paired t-test indicated that the average of difference between knowledge and accomplishment grades of two groups was significant (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Regarding the finding of the present study and the fact that asthma is on the rise resulting in an increase in truancies as well as stressing the efficacy of training peers suffering from the disease, the implementation of the curriculum could be necessary.