Abstract
BACKGROUND: The "Bedia" tribal people are found all over India; they are poor, illiterate, and confined culturally. In many parts of India, malaria, a disease caused by mosquitoes, is becoming more common. Raising awareness and educating people about it is the best method to stop disease and maintain good health. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the perception, attitudes, and practices of a particularly vulnerable tribal group-the "Bedia"-in the rural region of eastern India. METHODS: A questionnaire with 19 structured questions has been created. The Bedia participants received the questionnaire from us. They had already responded. The intervention took the form of several health education workshops that were created in response to the deficiencies identified in the pre-test assessment's replies. The identical questionnaire used for the pre-test evaluation was given to each participant for the post-test who attended the training sessions. RESULTS: The current study found that while the first cognitive domain question on malaria transmission was not statistically significant, changes in malaria breeding grounds, regions with higher mosquito numbers, and the source of information about malaria are. Their knowledge of the treatment for malaria and the agent used to treat it is statistically significant in the current study, but the fifth question on the most common symptom of malaria was not statistically significant. The answers to the questions about "What you will do if you see someone suffering from malaria," "How much time was spent in the malaria control program," "Malaria detection," and "Regular usage of bed-nets" in the affective and psychomotor domains all had statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our research on interventions to raise awareness of malaria in this tribal region of northern West Bengal, eastern India, bordering Bangladesh, was published for the first time to our knowledge. In the majority of the items from the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning domains, we have seen significant changes.