DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH LITERACY MODEL FOR VILLAGE HEALTH VOLUNTEERS TO PREVENT THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF PM2.5 IN SAMUT PRAKAN PROVINCE

Abstract

               Environmental Health Literacy (EHL) embraced as important for improving public health by preventing disease or health impacts from environmental risk factors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to development of EHL model for village health volunteers (VHV) to prevent the health effects from PM2.5 in Samut Prakan Province using participatory action research (PAR). Research methodology divided into 3 phases, including 1) A questionnaire-based was used to assess the EHL of 419 VHVs, 2) The focus groups of 90 persons were organized during the workshop in an effort to find the EHL model together by key individuals from the district-level conversation, and 3) Integrating participation of 24 persons using brainstorming to prioritize the development of EHL model by key individuals from the province participated level conversation. The descriptive statistics were frequency, percentage, mean, standardized division and content analysis. The results showed that 1) The over all of VHVs’ had a moderate level of EHL ( =3.67, S.D.=0.89), 2) VHVs’ can develop EHL model, that most often is the academic training along with brochures, 3) The top three volunteers’ rank in development of EHL model for VHVs’ were as follows: academic training, text media, and multimedia, respectively. Consequently, a developing model suitable for VHV participation was from this study can be utilized as guideline for organizing the EHL of VHVs and to bring about the higher quality emergence of health-promoting behavior in the future.