Effectiveness of IEC Package on Disaster Preparedness among Selected School Children at Medavakkam, Kanchipuram District

NEED FOR THE STUDY: India is highly disaster prone country in Asia Pacific region with average of 8 major natural calamities a year, where floods cyclones, draughts, earthquakes and epidemics are frequent from time to time. IEC package on disaster preparedness among school children is strengthening the students confident in disaster management, promoting awareness and enhancing knowledge and skills of all students associated with migration, preparedness and response measures. A child has a greater capacity to observe, learn, experiment and transfer knowledge to others. It is more prone to a new way of life and changed come to it more naturally. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: 1. To assess the level of knowledge regarding disaster preparedness in selected school children at Medavakkam, Kanchipuram District. 2. To assess the effectiveness of IEC package on disaster preparedness among selected school children at Medavakkam, Kanchipuram District. 3. To find out the association between the post-test level of knowledge with selected demographic variables of selected school children at Medavakkam, Kanchipuram District. METHODOLOGY: Research approach - Quantitative research approach Research Design: Pre-test and post test only design, Study settings: Government Higher Secondary School at Medavakkam, Kanchipuram District. Study Population: Selected school children. Sampling Technique: Simple random sampling by lottery method. Sample size: 60 selected school children. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE: After getting permission from concern authorities, Level of knowledge was assessed by demographic profile and structured knowledge questionnaire by interview method. Concern obtained from study participants confidentiality maintained. Pre test was assessed and administration of IEC package regarding disaster preparedness. On 7th day post test was conducted to assess the effectiveness of IEC package. PLAN FOR DATA ANALYSIS: The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage for demographic variables and inferential statistics like chi square test, McNemar test, student ‘t’ test, paired ‘t’ test and independent ‘t’ test were used to analyze categorical variables. RESULT OF THE STUDY: The study reveals that the mean difference and standard deviation of the pre test and post test knowledge score (M = 4.30: 14.52, SD = 1.74, 1.90) with the ‘t’ value of 36.44, which is statistically significant with P≤0.001. This shows the effectiveness of the IEC package on disaster preparedness among selected school children. CONCLUSION: The investigator thereby concluded that the IEC package on disaster preparedness among selected school children is improve the level of knowledge of to prevent and minimize the disaster impacts in future