Factors predicting preventive behaviors of pulmonary tuberculosis among high school students in Bangkok

Abstract

Background: The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis patiens in children and adolescents among High school students in Bangkok is increasing. Current reports indicate that tuberculosis epidemics are more prevalent and literature review found that no studied were conducted so far about factors with correlations with and influence on tuberculosis preventive behaviors in high school adolescents in Bangkok.

Objectives: This correlation research aimed to determine predictive power of gender, health literacy and social support on preventive behaviors of pulmonary tuberculosis among high school students in Bangkok based on Nutbeam (2008)’s framework.

Methods: The sample of this study was 182 high school students in Bangkok. The sample was selected based on a simple random sampling. Data were collected by using a 4-part questionnaire.

Results: The results of this research indicated that gender and social support in preventing pulmonary tuberculosis in schools had significantly positive correlation with preventive behaviors of pulmonary tuberculosis (r = 0.222, r = 0.264, P < 0.001, respectively). Health literacy in preventing pulmonary tuberculosis had moderate positive correlation with preventive behaviors of pulmonary tuberculosis (r = 0.510, P < 0.001). Gender, health literacy and social support could jointly predict preventive behaviors of pulmonary tuberculosis among high school students in Bangkok ( = 0.136, 0.461, 0.191, P < 0.05, respectively). These factors could jointly predict 31.6% of the variation in preventive behaviors of pulmonary tuberculosis among high school students in Bangkok (r = 0.562, P < 0.05).

Conclusion: The study found that gender, health literacy on tuberculosis prevention and social support could predict tuberculosis preventive behaviors among high school students in Bangkok.