Problem
In the last three years, reality has tirelessly provided new, formidable challenges to healthcare workers. It seems that the new one could be the monkeypox infection pandemic. According to experts, “there have been 780 confirmed cases of monkeypox in countries where the virus is not usually found” (Monkeypox, 2022, para. 1). Efficient community health measures are needed to prevent the widespread of these dangerous microorganisms throughout the global population. Fortunately, monkeypox is not a new infection, and it is well-researched in terms of its effective averting and treatment on all levels. For example, educational interventions in communities most susceptible to infectious outbreaks enhance their knowledge of diseases and medicines and behaviors and intentions regarding hygiene and health-seeking (Owoyemi et al., 2021). It is a community health outcome that needs to be considered in situations associated with the risk of new epidemics and pandemics.
Supporting Data
At least three academic sources have backed up a theory about the efficacy of educational initiatives and programs in developing ordinary people’s knowledge of widespread respiratory viruses. One of them is the paper by Owoyemi et al. in which he and his colleagues state that “the post-intervention survey revealed improvements in knowledge and positive health-related behavioral intents” (Owoyemi et al., 2021, p. 880). Another one from China and its writers calculated that “average accuracies of knowledge and behaviors towards infectious diseases reached 72.23% and 60.03%” (Wang et al., 2018, p. 1). In addition, Li et al. (2019) found that “the sum infectious disease knowledge score … was higher after the intervention” (p. 70). As can be seen, their main finding and conclusion are similar to the other two presented.
Sources of Exposure
Knowing factors that can worsen community-level health outcomes allows one to make the impact of interventions and programs more sustainable and save resources such as time and efforts of health workers and findings. Among the things that can reduce the knowledge and worsen the behavior of a specific large group of people about infectious diseases is poor education. The lifestyle of more educated persons, especially those with tertiary education, is comparatively healthier (Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2020). Consequently, their pre-intervention awareness of illnesses and healthy behaviors and general ability to cognize such information is more comprehensive than those who could not receive quality teaching. Gender imbalance and disparities in crucial institutions are other factors of negative influence on the discussed health outcome (Saul et al., 2018). The lack of focused funding for preventive community programs and policies is destructive (Farberman et al., 2020). In conclusion, institutional weaknesses are the primary causes that undermine the presented health outcome.
Related Research Paper
The scholarly work of Li et al., which had already been previously quoted, was selected for this final section. The purpose of Chinese researchers and health experts was to analyze and evaluate structurally different instructional and educative interventions in a factory setting to develop original recommendations for ailment and disease prevention programs (Li et al., 2019). The assumptions and hypotheses they present have an accepted character, judging by how the researchers formulate and construct ideas in the introduction. There is a visible presupposition of objectivity and correctness of concepts and theories critical for research and original inferences. The sample selection method by Li et al. (2019) consists of two stages, random sampling for factories and convenience sampling for people. It is noteworthy that the total number of people in all three factories was over 3000 individuals and the final total sample size reached over 1200 persons (Li et al., 2019).
References
Farberman, R. K., McKillop, M., Lieberman, D. A., Delgado, D., Thomas, C., Cunningham, J., McIntyre, K. (2020). The impact of chronic underfunding on America’s public health system: Trends, risks, and recommendations, 2020. Trust for America’s Health.
Li, L., Xu, W., Wagner, A. L., Dong, X., Yin, J., Zhang, Y., & Boulton, M. L. (2019). Evaluation of health education interventions on Chinese factory workers’ knowledge, practices, and behaviors related to infectious disease.Journal of Infection and Public Health, 12(1), 70-76.
Monkeypox: Cases outside Africa rise to 780 in three weeks. (2022). BBC News.
Owoyemi, A., Okolie, E. A., Omitiran, K., Amaechi, U. A., Sodipo, B. O., Ajumobi, O., Nnaji, C. E., & Okedo-Alex, I. N. (2021). Importance of community-level interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 105(4), 879-883. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.20-1533
Raghupathi, V., & Raghupathi, W. (2020). The influence of education on health: An empirical assessment of OECD countries for the period 1995–2015.Archives of Public Health, 78(1), 1-18.
Saul, J., Bachman, G., Allen, S., Toiv, N. F., Cooney, C., & Beamon, T. (2018). The DREAMS core package of interventions: A comprehensive approach to preventing HIV among adolescent girls and young women.PLOS ONE, 13(12), 1-18.
Wang, M., Han, X., Fang, H., Xu, C., Lin, X., Xia, S., Yu, W., He, J., Jiang, S., & Tao, H. (2018). Impact of health education on knowledge and behaviors toward infectious diseases among students in Gansu Province, China.BioMed Research International, 2018, 1-12.