| Background: Incident rates of dengue fever are rapidly increasing worldwide. Contributing factors including climate change, urbanization, globalization, and vector mutation, are creating significant public health challenges. Dengue fever has no vaccination, and no cure; therefore prevention through vector control is the primary method of public protection. Research indicates that community involvement is critical in achieving vector control, and that children, disproportionally burdened by this disease, are an effective and appropriate population to target with interventions. Innovative, sustainable, cost effective strategies are needed. Objective: It was theorized that an educational animation regarding dengue fever, created using CDC guidelines, would be effective at improving knowledge, attitude, and practices in primary school children in Florida. An animation entitled "Dengue Fever Comes To Town" was developed to assess this concept. Methods: A pretest/posttest study was conducted. Knowledge changes were statistically evaluated using a Two-tailed Paired Sample t-test. Attitude changes were evaluated using a Wilcoxon Matched Pair Signed Rank. Practice changes were evaluated using a chi-square test. Results: The animation was effective at improving knowledge, attitude, and practices in third through fifth grade levels, for both males and females. Recommendations: Given the vulnerability of the population, and the increasing risk of dengue fever, establishment of preventive education is recommended, including adding the educational animation to school curricula in Florida. |
