Effects of Health Literacy Promotion Program on Preventing the Impact of Electronic Cigarettes among Lower Secondary School Students in Somdej District, Kalasin Province

Abstract

     This one-group pretest–posttest quasi-experimental study aimed to compare students’ knowledge and health literacy for preventing e-cigarette-related harms before and after participation in a health literacy promotion program. Participants were 34 Grade 9 students from one school in Somdet District, Kalasin Province, Thailand. The program comprised activities addressing six health literacy components: knowledge and understanding, access to health information and services, communication skills, self-management, decision-making, and media and information literacy. Data were collected before and after the intervention using a knowledge test and a health literacy questionnaire. The health literacy questionnaire had a reliability coefficient of 0.94. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and a paired-samples t-test, with statistical significance set at .05.

     After the intervention, the mean communication skills score increased from 2.67 (SD=0.78) to 3.32 (SD=0.85), representing a statistically significant mean increase of 0.65 points (95% CI: 0.20–1.09; p=.01). However, no statistically significant differences were found in knowledge, access to health information and services, self-management, decision-making, media and information literacy, or overall health literacy.