Effectiveness Of An Educational Intervention On Understanding Actions And Adverse Effects Of Common Over-The-Counter (OTC) Medications Among Selected High School Teachers

Abstract

As human beings we have the fundamental right to have access to health services. Nowadays around the world people consume medicines with or without the prescription of the physicians. There are some medicines that are sold without a prescription, in contrast to prescription drugs—these drugs are termed as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. They range from pain relievers, cough and cold remedies to vitamin supplements. But over-the-counter drugs are not guaranteed to be safe even if taken as directed. They can cause severe and fatal damage to any organs of the body. The aim of the present study was to increase the knowledge of the English medium high school teachers and evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on the actions and adverse effects of commonly used over-the-counter medications. One group pre-test post-test research design was adopted to accomplish the objectives of the study. The teaching programme was prepared by the investigator focusing on the actions and adverse effects of commonly used over-the- counter medication among English medium high school teachers. The structured knowledge questionnaire was prepared to assess the pre-test knowledge of high school teachers and the same was administered to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme in terms of post-test knowledge. The results showed that the mean post-test knowledge score was apparently higher (34.80) when compared to the mean pre-test knowledge score (27.84). The score of pre-tests (SD=4.77) was more dispersed than the scores of post-tests (SD=3.20). Hence, it is apparent that there was a considerable gain in knowledge of high school teachers regarding actions and adverse effects of commonly used over-the-counter medication. Further effectiveness was tested by using paired ‘t’ test. The calculated ‘t’ value of pre-test knowledge score (t69=16.27, P < 0.05) is higher than the table value. Therefore, it can be concluded that the difference in the mean observed was a true difference and the teaching programme on the actions and adverse effects of commonly used over-the-counter medications was effective in increasing the knowledge of high school teachers. There was significant increase in the knowledge score of high school teachers after the teaching programme. Therefore, it is concluded that the structured teaching programme was highly effective in increasing the knowledge of high school teachers.