Evaluation of a School-based Health Education Program on Hepatitis B prevention practice in Rural South-Western, Nigeria

This study employed a quasi-experimental design to assess the effect of a school-based health education program on Hepatitis B prevention practice of 256 selected secondary school students from four schools in Ogun state and randomized into three intervention schools teacher-instructed (E1), peer-directed (E2) and a combination of these two (E3) respectively with a control group (C). The theory-based educational intervention was implemented for six weeks and data analyzed considered baseline and follow-up mean and standard deviation scores of outcome variables of Hepatitis B prevention practice of participants. Statistical analysis of ANOVA and Cohen’s D Effect Size (ES) was used to quantify the effectiveness of the intervention on outcome variables at 5% level of significance. At baseline, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the mean Hepatitis B prevention practice scores between the four groups E1 (17.21±3.03), E2 (15.57±1.90), E3 (17.90±3.10), and C (15.20±2.44). The means scores of participants in the experimental groups increased significantly between baseline and follow-up among E1 (from 17.2 to 23.2; p < 0.05), E2 (from13.5 to 23.5; p <0.05), E3 (from 17.9 to 25.2; p 0.05). The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated at follow-up by comparing ES of each experimental group thus, 2.17, 95%CI: (1.70-2.64; p <0.02), 2.46, 95%CI: 1.97-2.96; p <0.05), 2.16, 95%CI: (1.69-2.64; p 0.05) respectively. Largely, the participants from E2 showed more improvement in prevention practices than their counters from E1, E3, and control. A combination of teachers and students should be engaged as change agents in schools for Hepatitis B virus infection control.