Effect of Health Awareness Program on Rural Women Self-reported Practices Regarding Domestic Health Hazards

Background: Domestic health hazards are increasingly seen as a community health problem that could be prevented through increased awareness, proper practices and improvements in the home environment. Aim of the study : This study aimed to evaluate the effect of health awareness program on rural women self-reported practices regarding domestic health hazards. Design: A quasi-experimental research design using pre/ post-test. Setting: This study was conducted at the maternal and child health care center in Sakha village, Kafr Elsheik governorate Subject: A convenient sample of (193) rural women. Tool: A structured interview questionnaire divided into 4 parts. Part (1): Socio-demographic Characteristics, Part (2): Women housing conditions, Part ((3): Women’s Knowledge assessment regarding domestic health hazards, part (4): Women’s Self-Reported Practices regarding domestic hazards. Results: Reveals that the total good knowledge score level of the studied women regarding domestic health hazards increased from 10.9% in the preprogram to 73.1% in the post program, with a highly statistically significant difference (p < 0.000). There was a highly statistically significant improvement towards total women's domestic health hazards self-reported practices pre/post-program (25.9%, 88.1%, respectively( at (P≤ 0.001). Conclusion and Recommendation : It could be inferred that the level of women's knowledge and self-reported practices regarding domestic health hazards was significantly improved after the implementation of the awareness program with a highly statistically significant difference. The findings of current study indicate that expanding awareness program to include low-income communities for improving their knowledge and practice toward domestic hazards.

home, housing has a substantial impact on human well-being. One of the most proven effects of housing on health is human exposure to domestic health hazards ( Morakinyo & Mokgobu, 2022).
Domestic health hazards are defined as a combination of physical, chemical, and biological contaminants from outdoor air, building and ornamental materials, burning appliances, and human activities. Exposure to indoor health hazards is widespread, numerous, and persistent. Domestic health hazards are those incidents that take place within a home or in the local area around it and are unrelated to traffic, automobiles, or sports. It can have a short-and long-term health effect on all family members, especially women, whose exposure significantly higher than men's.
Because they frequently participate in cooking.
People in developing countries, especially those from rural areas, are commonly exposed to prominent levels of household pollution for 3-7 hours daily while using biomass in their kitchen.

Aim of the study:
The study's main aim was to evaluate the effect of health awareness program on rural women self-reported practices regarding domestic health hazards.

Research hypotheses:
Implementation of the awareness program will positively change the rural women' knowledge level and their reported practices regarding domestic health hazards

Research Design:
Quasi-experimental one-group pre/pos-test design was used to achieve the study's aim. It was used to compare between study group pre/post awareness program. The dependent variable is measured once before and after program implementation. The dependent variable in this study is the rural women self-reported practices regarding domestic health hazards, and the independent variable is the health awareness program.

Scoring system for knowledge:
Related to studied women ' knowledge assessment pre & post program Each question answer was corrected by researchers against a model answer as A score of (2) was given to the correct and complete answer; a score of (1) for correct but incomplete answer; and a score of (0) for the wrong or when the woman answered, "she does not know". The total knowledge scores were computed by summing up the number of correct answers for all. The total knowledge score was ranged from 0 to 82 categorized to the following three levels: -Knowledge level > 70% was considered good knowledge -From 50% to 70% was considered fair knowledge -< 50 % considered poor knowledge.

Scoring system for reported practices:
For each question, every correct answer had been scored as 1 point and 0 score for (do not know or do not do anything). A total score of selfreported practices was computed to end with 61 for the self-reported practice's part. Total practices had been categorized as satisfactory (≥70%) and unsatisfactory self-reported practices (<70%).

Validity and reliability:
The content validity of the tools, its clarity, Cronbach's α test was used to assess the reliability of the questions relating to knowledge, which was 0.86, and the reliability of the questions relating to self-reported practices was 0.89.

Pilot study
A pilot study was conducted on nineteen women, representing 10% of the women. Data gained from those women were included in the current study. The purpose of the pilot study was to evaluate the instruments' clarity, to determine how long it would take to gather the data, and to assess the feasibility of the research procedure. No alterations were made.

Ethical and legal considerations
The research gained first approval from the ethical committee at the Kafr Elshiekh University.
Then permission from the medical center's director had been obtained. The study's participants had the option to opt out at any time, and the information they provided was kept private and confidential so that no one else could access it without the participants' express permission. Participation in the study was voluntary.

Fieldwork:
After receiving official approval to conduct the study, the chosen subjects were informed of their purpose. The study was carried out in three months, from November 2022, until January 2023. -Each session began with a brief explanation of the objectives while using a simple Arabic language. Women were divided into eight groups, and each group consisted of around 25 women.
-By the end of each session, the women were made aware of the schedule for the following session by the end of each one.

Conclusion
Based on the previous results, it could be inferred that the level of women's knowledge and practices regarding domestic health hazards was significantly improved after the implementation of the awareness program with a highly statistically significant difference.

Recommendations:
The findings of current study indicate that expanding awareness programs to include lowincome communities for improving their knowledge and practices toward domestic hazards. Moreover, further studies are needed to a larger sample for generalization

Acknowledgements
The researchers would like to thank all the participating women for their cooperation. Also, thanks full to Maternal and child health care center director and staff in Sakha village for their support and cooperation.

References :
Abin, B & Mathew,S (2020) Correlative study to assess the knowledge and practice of housewives regarding household waste management in selected rural community at Mangalore with a View to Provide an Information Pamphlet. Medico-legal Update Journal.; 20 (4)