Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Otitis Media and Its Prevention among Mothers of Under Five Children: A Pre-Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Otitis media is the inflammation of the middle ear. Every year, over 700 million people get otitis media. Otitis media-related hearing loss nearly doubles in children aged 1 to 5 years1. Most affected people live in low-income countries, including Nepal. Methods:A pre-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design was used to assess the effectiveness of the structural teaching programme (STP) on otitis media and its prevention. A purposive sampling technique was used. The study included 120 mothers of under-five children residing in the rural community of Lalitpur, Nepal. For respondents who could read, write, a structured knowledge questionnaire was distributed, and for those who could not, interviews were conducted. Results: The mean pre-test knowledge score was 44.2% (SD 9.3%), whereas the mean post-test knowledge score was 85.8% (7.8 %.), and the enhancement mean knowledge was 41.6% (SD 9.7%). When a paired t-test was done, the obtained value of 33.22 was found to be significant at 0.05. A significant association was found between respondents' pretest knowledge levels of otitis media and its prevention and socio-demographic variables such as age, type of family, the number of children, education status, occupation, monthly income, and whether they had heard about it before. Conclusion: The majority of the participants had inadequate knowledge about otitis media and its prevention. The mean pre-test and post-test knowledge scores of respondents differed significantly. As a result, the study found that STP was effective. Keywords: effectiveness, structural teaching programme, knowledge, mothers of under five children.