The effectiveness of a program promoting behavior to prevent the dangers of pesticide use among sugarcane farmers in Khoi Sung Sub-district, Tron District, Uttaradit Province.

Abstract

Abstract

A Quasi-experimental study is a one-group pretest-posttest design aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a program to promote behaviors for preventing harm from the use of chemical pesticides. The sample consisted of 32 sugarcane farmers from Koi Sung Subdistrict. The program for promoting preventive behaviors regarding pesticide harm was developed by utilizing research findings from Phase 1 to design the program. These findings included variables significantly related to preventive behaviors against pesticide harm at the 0.05 statistical significance level, including health perception, such as the awareness of the benefits of prevention, perceived obstacles, incentives for prevention, and the duration of pesticide use. The program applied the Health Belief Model in conjunction with social support, encouragement, and reminders, using social support. It consisted of five activities: Activity 1. Farmers and Self-management, Activity 2.Health Perception Awareness, Activity 3. Promoting Preventive Behaviors for Pesticide Harm, Activity 4. Creating Support to Reduce Illness from Pesticide Use, and Activity 5. Knowledge Exchange Forum. The experimental period lasted for 4 months. Data were collected using a questionnaire, and the analysis was conducted using Independent t-test statistics. The research results showed that after the experiment, the variables had statistically significant increases in mean scores when compared to the pre-experiment values, including health perception (P-Value < 0.001) and health behaviors (P-Value = 0.001), respectively.