Malee Geounuppakul. An empowerment program to enhance women's ability to prevent and control malaria in Chiang Mai province, Thailand . Doctoral Degree(Tropical Medicine). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2006.
An empowerment program to enhance women's ability to prevent and control malaria in Chiang Mai province, Thailand
Abstract:
Malaria remains a public health problem for rural people living along the Thai-
Myanmar border. Paulo Freire theory was modified to empower a women’s group in
Chiang Mai Province to prevent and control malaria. This quasi-experimental study
conducted an intervention in Muang Na Wan Village, Muang Na Sub-district, Chiang
Dao District, Chiang Mai Province, where 45 women were systematically recruited into
the study cohort. The control in the study was Navail Village, about 18 km from the
intervention village. The empowerment program emphasized enhancement of malaria
education levels and knowledge of bed nets, self-esteem, self-efficacy expectation, and
family health practices. Intensive training was conducted and activities performed among
the women’s group, with 10 participatory meetings in all. Data collection was conducted
for the pretest in months 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12, and similarly post-intervention. The qualitative
methods used were focus-group discussions, non-participant observation, and in-dept
interview with housewives, their husbands, and youths at risk of malaria. The results
showed that, post- intervention, there were significantly increased levels of knowledge
about malaria, attitudes, preventive behaviors, use of insecticide-treated nets, and selfesteem
and self-efficacy expectations, in the intervention village compared with the
control village. The women’s group could create the following plans, which were crucial
to malaria prevention: (1) a family protection plan, (2) Providing malaria education to
community members, (3) a mosquito-control campaign, (4) scaling-up insecticideimpregnated
bed nets, and (5) malaria control among foreign laborers. Finally, the
empowered women’s group was performing sustainable activities. Between the times for
malaria-prevention activities, they conducted a joint program to raise income for their
families