Impact of a Community Based Health Education Intervention on Dengue Prevention, Immunization Uptake, Family Planning Awareness and Nutritional Status of Under Five Children in Dasmariñas City, Philippines: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Dengue remains hyper endemic in the Philippines, and sub optimal childhood immunization, limited family planning use and residual under nutrition coexist in rapidly urbanizing communities. Well designed primary care education programmes may address these syndemic threats simultaneously, yet empirical evidence from peri urban Philippine settings is scarce.

Methods: A mixed methods, post intervention cross sectional survey was conducted six months after a Barangay wide health education package delivered by nurses and Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) in Block 504, Paliparan III, Dasmariñas City. All 13 households (n = 92 residents) were interviewed with a structured questionnaire and children ≤ 71 months were anthropometrically assessed. Primary outcomes were (i) household knowledge/practice scores for dengue prevention, (ii) completeness of the routine Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) schedule, (iii) current use of any contraceptive method among women aged 15–49 years, and (iv) WHO classified nutritional status of under five children.

Results: Eleven of 13 households (84.6%) identified ≥3 evidence based dengue prevention measures and nine (69.2%) reported regular water container management. Six of seven children (85.7%) were fully immunized at 13 months, and documentary records were available for all. Fifteen of 16 women of reproductive age (93.8%) were practicing family planning; withdrawal (46.7%) and oral pills (26.7%) were most common. All seven under five children had normal weight for age; however, two (28.6%) were stunted, indicating chronic under nutrition. No deaths and only one suspected dengue case were recorded in the preceding year.

Conclusion: The integrated, BHW led education package was associated with high levels of dengue prevention knowledge, near universal immunization completeness, very high contraceptive uptake and generally adequate child nutrition, but residual stunting highlights the need for sustained nutrition sensitive programmes. These findings support scaling community based, multi topic health education models in comparable peri urban Philippine contexts.