Investigating the Effect of Storytelling in The Prevention of Re-Infection with Intestinal Parasites in Students of Primary Schools in The Villages of Urmia

Intestinal parasitic infections (IPI) with many complications cause stunted growth in children. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of storytelling in the prevention of parasitic-intestinal re-infection in primary school students in villages of Urmia.

The present study is a quasi-experimental study that was performed on 400 primary school students in rural areas of Urmia in 2012. After performing fecal testing of all students and determining the needs of educational intervention, about the prevention of parasitic-intestinal re-infection was taught to the experimental group using storytelling method. Data were collected in two stages before and 6 months after the end of the educational intervention by a questionnaire using SPSS software, version 16 and Chi-square test was used to analyze the data.

The findings showed a significant reduction in re-infection with parasitic-intestinal infections in the experimental group compared to the control group after educational intervention through storytelling. Also, the level of knowledge of the experimental group increased after the educational intervention compared to the control group. Chi-square test  showed that there is a significant relationship between educational intervention through storytelling and reduction of IPI in students (p<0.05).

Storytelling method is effective in reducing the risk of re-infection of IPI among students. Therefore, storytelling for students in the field of prevention against IPI is recommended.