By : Dr.Jinu K Rajan

Department of Nursing, College of Applied Medical Sciences,

Majmaah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Head and body lice (pediculus humans) are similar in appearance, but head louse is often smaller in size. While, pubic lice (pthirus pubis), are quite distinctive. They have shorter bodies and a pincher-like claw, which makes them look like crabs. However, most common symptom of lice infestation is itching. Materials and Methods. Study originated with a sample of 150 children for explicating prevalence and knowledge of pediculosis among school children with age from 8-12 years. The study objectives were: – 1- assessing the school children knowledge regarding pediculosis. 2- Determining the scalp status for prevalence of pediculosis among studied subjects . 3-Determine the association between pediculosis and studied subjects demographic variables. 4- Determine the treatment needed for pediculosis. 5- Developing a health education module needed . This is a descriptive survey approach and design was descriptive cross sectional study. Which found to be appropriate for assessing pediculosis prevalence and knowledge among the studied subjects, with utilizing stratified random sampling technique. Study was conducted in selected schools of Indore. All children within age between 8-12 years from selected area of Indore constitute target population for the study. Results: Current results showed that, mean of knowledge among studied children was 57.2%. As well as it was detected that, moderate knowledge regarding pediculosis and there is significant association between pediculosis knowledge with studied children’s age. Prevalence of pediculosis was noticed among 54.6% and this put a flash light regarding treatment needs among children school. The treatment proportion needs identified among studied children was 20.7% for scalp hygiene, 67.1% for recommendation of OTC and 12.2% for special treatments. Conclusion: it can concluded that, clearly depicted that, school childrens were having moderate knowledge about pediculosis prevention. As well as based on the findings, health education module was developed to enhance the children awareness about pediculosis.

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