Development and Effectiveness of the School-Based Education Program for Coping With Particulate Matter

BACKGROUND: Adolescents are considered to be vulnerable to particulate matter (PM). This study aims to develop and verify the effectiveness of the "school-based education program for coping with particulate matter (SEPC_PM)." This program was designed by employing the health belief model. METHODS: High school students between the ages of 15 and 18 in South Korea participated in the program. This study employed a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. A total of 113 students participated in the study; of these, 56 students participated in the intervention group, and 57 in the control group. The intervention group received 8 intervention sessions the SEPC_PM over the course of 4 weeks. RESULTS: After the completion of the program, the intervention group's knowledge about PM showed a statistically significant increase (t = 4.79, p < .001). The practice of engaging in health-managing behaviors to protect against PM also showed statistically significant improvement in the intervention group, with the greatest progress in practicing precaution when outdoors (t = 2.22, p = .029). No statistically significant changes were observed regarding other dependent variables. However, a subdomain of the variable of perceived self-efficacy for engaging in health-managing behaviors to protect against PM (degree of body cleansing after returning home) demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the intervention group (t = 1.99, p = .049). CONCLUSIONS: The SEPC_PM may be proposed for incorporation into regular high school curricula to improve students' health by encouraging them to take necessary actions against PM.