Impact of a simple educational intervention on the knowledge and awareness of tuberculosis among high school children in Vellore, India

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a disease of great significance in India. With the advent of the HIV/AIDS epidemic the problem has been compounded. The Millenium Development Goal number 6, target 8, is ‘Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of TB by 2015’. In order to achieve this goal the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Stop TB program; one of the important strategies of which was education and empowerment of communities. It is hypothesized that improving the knowledge and awareness about tuberculosis in school going children will spread the awareness in the general community. This study was done to assess the level of knowledge of high school children, about various aspects of tuberculosis, and to assess the impact of a simple educational intervention on the knowledge of the children, with regard to tuberculosis.