Effects of teacher-led educational intervention on knowledge and attitude towards the prevention of diabetes mellitus among students of a secondary school in Southern Nigeria: a single group quasi-experimental study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The widely documented poor knowledge of diabetes mellitus (DM) among
adolescents is a lacuna in the current drive to decrease the prevalence of the disease. This study
was designed to investigate the effects of teacher-led educational interventions on the knowledge,
perception, and attitude towards DM among students of Dom-Domingos College Warri, Delta
State, Nigeria.
METHODS: This pre-test post-test design study was conducted on 100 secondary school students
of Dom-Domingos College in 2021, who were selected using the simple random sampling
method. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire including demographic, knowledge,
perception, and attitude sections. Afterward, an educational intervention was implemented
among the students for three weeks in three hourly sessions. After one month, the data were
recollected from the students and analyzed using mean, paired t-test, and logistic regression at
P<0.05 level of significance by SPSS Version 17 software.
RESULTS: The mean age of the students was 13.95±1.92 years, and 59 (59.0%) were females. The
majority of the students, 88 (88.0%), are aware of DM. The findings showed a significant increase
in the mean knowledge, perception and attitude score in the post-test compared to the pre-test
at P<0.05.
CONCLUSION: Teacher-led educational intervention effectively improves knowledge, perception,
and attitude towards DM prevention among in-school adolescents. Therefore, the study
recommends utilizing this opportunity by educational and health policymakers to increase
messages of DM prevention in secondary schools in Nigeria.