Knowledge of Dengue Among Students Exposed to Various Awareness Campaigns in Model Schools of Islamabad: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective To determine the knowledge of dengue among school students exposed to various awareness campaigns in model schools of Islamabad. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of students who were studying in Islamabad Model School for Girls F-7/2 and Islamabad Model College for Boys F-7/3 from September 2017 to October 2017. Students in the ninth and tenth grades who were willing to participate in the study and who were studying in the school for more than six months were included in the study. The data was collected through a self-constructed questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of the questionnaire, and it was found to be 0.83. The data obtained was analyzed on IBM's statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 21 (IBM, Armonk, NY). Results Out of 601 participants, 345 (57.4%) were males and 256 (42.6%) were females. The mean age of the participants was 14.72±1.09. About 380 participants (63.2%) were studying in the ninth grade and 221 participants (36.8%) were studying in the tenth grade. A majority of the participants (67.2%) had poor knowledge of dengue. The participants scored highest in knowledge of prevention of the dengue domain and scored the lowest in knowledge of transmission of dengue. A majority of the participants (72.9%) reported that they acquire knowledge about dengue fever through television and radio. About 44.60% of the participants reported that they acquired knowledge about dengue fever through awareness campaigns in school. Conclusions The knowledge of the students was found to be insufficient despite several awareness campaigns. There is a need to re-evaluate the structure of the awareness campaigns as they fail to reach their target. Electronic media was identified as the most useful source of knowledge, and its incorporation can help increase the effectiveness of awareness campaigns.