Including a service learning educational research project in a biology course-II: Assessing community awareness of legionnaires' disease?

Abstract

For a university service learning educational research project addressing Legionnaires’ disease (LD), a Yes/No questionnaire on community awareness of LD was developed and distributed in an urban community in North Carolina, USA. The 456 questionnaires completed by the participants were sorted into yes and no sets based on responses obtained to the first question on whether the participant has heard of LD, and 194 participants (~43%) answered in the affirmative. For the other nine questions the yes response percentages ranged from 16% - 68%. Using  analysis, the study showed that the age of the participant was a major factor in enhancing awareness of LD, whereas education was a minor factor at best. Differences in responses among the age groups were strongly significant (<0.005) for general LD awareness, knowledge of its causes and prevalence, as well as body systems affected, prevention and treatment. Significance at the lower level of  <0.05 was observed among the different age groups on knowledge of exposure to LD through inhalation of contaminated air (Q5). In fact Q5 was the only question for which the responses of pre-university and university groups varied significantly ( <0.05). Interest among the participants in learning more about LD (68%) was higher than in attending a university seminar on the topic (54%). This study provided many educational opportunities to the students to enhance and apply their data analysis skills and to intensify several aspects of their knowledge acquisition and communication skills. Fostering the active involvement of students in an educational activity that can set the stage for an innovative university-community partnership on enhancing awareness of the preventable environmental disease LD is of benefit to all stakeholders.

Keywords

• Legionnaires’ disease, community awareness, service learning

References

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