Effects of
Education Curricula on National health: A look at Low and Middle-Income
countries (LMICs)
Studies
have shown that there is a relationship between awareness and health-related
practices. The Health Belief Model (HBM) suggests that
the threat of an illness combined with a belief in the effectiveness of the
recommended behavior—in this case, preventive measures—predicts the likelihood
of adopting a certain behavior. The likelihood of adopting a certain behavior
is based on an individual assessment of threat, which involves evaluating the
likelihood of getting the disease and its severity. In addition, individual
factors (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, knowledge, and
awareness), cues to action, and the benefits and feasibility of adopting a
behavior help to predict whether preventive measures will be adopted.
Cues to action are contingent on the
ambient context of occurrence. Children are exposed to a motley of digital
paraphernalia. As such, they are prone to the impacts of social media. Studies
have reported that social media can have deleterious effects on the
psychosocial salubrity of students. Consequently, in view of the foregoing, students
perceive the benefits of health actions in many different ways. Accordingly,
misperceptions and misinformation abound. At the same time, health decisions
are determined by family factors such as smoking parents as well as the
application of tobacco and alcohol in homeopathy. Considering the contemporary
ambience that children share with adults, there is need for caution when
designing curricula to circumvent the pitfalls that plague many LMIC
technocratic space.
Knowledge and awareness related to all
constructs in HBM help individuals carry out an assessment, which results in
either adopting a new behavior or not.
The education systems in many LMICs are
designed for subsistence and have limited capacity to propel most of the LMICs
to attainment of development. Worse still many students pass through the
education system without acquiring skills requisite for healthy living.
Furthermore, many students drop out of school
before attaining the basic education that would drive them to seek a better
understanding of their health and other members of their communities.
In
countries where many competing priorities continue to define and determine the
health decisions, individuals and families make again and again, there is need
for development of curricula that can enable students to apply preventative
skills to manage risk factors from various diseases.
In most
LMICs, the healthcare systems are limited by economic and social determinants.
As such disease is a cause and outcome of poverty. The hallmarks of the
healthcare systems in LMICs include late presentation of illnesses for Medicare
with poor therapeutic outcomes. For instance, in the management of
non-communicable diseases, many LMICs lack the capacity for screening,
diagnosis, and treatment. Understanding and elucidating the dynamics of health
and disease in the LMICs is the first step towards effectively managing
healthcare provision. Overall, the lacuna that exists in the continuum of
health awareness and practices warrants urgent and strategic action to prevent undesirable
health outcomes in the future. As an important determinant of awareness, the education
and training curricula should be designed with disease-preventative components.
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