Development of Village Health Promotion Capacity Using Food Safety Test Kits of the Department of Medical Sciences, 2011 - 2015

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a model for building health promotion capacity at village level through the utilization of food safety test kits developed by the department of Medical Sciences, so that the communities should be able to maintain the program on they own efforts. It was performed in a few selected villages of Chiengrai, Prae and Nan provinces which are under the technical supervision of the Regional Medical Science Center (RMSC) 1/1, Chiangrai. The key participants of the study were village health volunteers (VHVs)ad well as the directors and personnel of sub-district health promotion hospitals in the areas. The study was conducted in 4 steps: (1) situation assessment, (2) planning, (3) implemen-tation and (4) evaluation. The food safety test kits used in the program included those for the detection of borax, hydrogen sulfide, formalin, salicylic, polar in over-used vegetable oil, pesticide in fruit and veg-etable, coliform in water and ice, swab test, water hardness, and free mineral acids in vinegar. At each village, a central laboratory was established at sub-district health promotion hospital. Training and techni-cal support was closely provided by the RMSC. The program outcomes were evaluated by using observa-tion, pre- and post-test questionnaires; and data were analyzed by using T-test at 0.05 significance. The first study site was selected in 2013 and, after positive results, the program was expanded to cover 7 sites and 433 volunteers by 2015. It was found that the VHV had significantly gained knowledge in the training subjects which varied from site to site in accordant with local situations and cultural context. The program at each site was sustainable with financial support from local adminitration organizations and the Queen Sirikit Health Center Development Foundation. This model should be widely applied to other villages in Thailand.