Effectiveness of Health Competencies’ Empowerment Program of School-Age Children, Upper Elementary School Level, Khon Kaen Province, Under Covid-19 epidemic situation

Abstract

     This experimental research aimed to compare the mean scores for health competency enhancement of school-aged children at the upper elementary school level Schools in municipalities and schools in the Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s Projects (HRH) before and after receiving the program of the experimental group and the control group, between the experimental group and the control group, and to studied health effects knowledge, practice, and attitude between schools in the municipality and schools in the royal initiative project after receiving the training program. The sample consisted of grade 4-6 students from 2 schools in the municipal area and 2 schools in the HRH schools by multi-stage random sampling. A total of 120 samples were included, divided into an experimental group of 60 people and a control group of 60, with a learning program developed by the researcher, the control group of 60 people learned about health and environmental health according to the normal school curriculum. The research tools were the student health empowerment questionnaire and the competency and health impact assessment questionnaire. Data were analyzed by percentage, mean, standard deviation, paired t-test, and ANOVA.

     The results of the research found that after the experiment, the experimental group had more learning progress than the normal curriculum, the experimental group was a statistically significant 0.05 higher score after studying than a normal curriculum, indicating that the program made students well-versed in health. Attitude and Health behaviors were higher than normal learning with a statistical significance of 0.05.