The Impact of Health Education Program about the Safe Use of Pesticides among Farmers at a Village in El-Minia City

Abstract

Background: Globally, pesticides poisonings and its side reactions are dramatically effecting the agricultural sector that accounted for between 250,000 to 370,000 human deaths annually, most of these deaths occurred in developing countries.  Aim: Study aims to assess the impact of health education program on the safe use of pesticides for farmers at a village of El-Minia city.  Design: Quasi-experimental design was utilized for this study with pre/posttest. A simple random sample of 322 pesticides users was selected. Data were collected through one tool that includes; 1st. part; questions related to demographic characteristics of the study sample, 2nd. part; knowledge questionnaire related to the using of pesticides in general, and the knowledge regarding the first aid of pesticide poisoning, 3rd. part; an attitudes regarding the usage of pesticides and the 4th .part; was a self-reported practices use of pesticides among farmers. Results: the mean age of the farmers who participated in the study was 47.7± 8.3 and 53.4% of them were illiterates. The current study showed that the general knowledge and also the first aid knowledge among studied sample were improved; from 7.8% and 23.6% respectively before implementation of the program to 69.3% and 90.4% have high level after implementation of the program. Farmers' attitudes revealed that an improvement from 13.4% of farmers before implementation of the program to 80.4% of the farmers have positive attitude. Regarding the reported practice; 79.8% have poor practice before implementation of the program improved to 63.4% fair practice after implementation of the program. Conclusion: Statistically significant relationships were found of general knowledge of studied farmers, attitudes and their self- reported practice regarding safety using of pesticides after the implementation of the health education program. Recommendations: continuous training and health education for Egyptian farmers are essential for safe practices during pesticides' usage also further researches are needed.