Efficacy of Protocol for Behavioural Interventions in Promoting Health Behaviour among Rural Geriatric Population Related to Primary Prevention of Respiratory Pandemics

The world over, older people have faced specific challenges, more recently due to outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic that required behavioural interventions like social distancing, hand washing, a healthy diet, regular exercise, meditation, regular health monitoring, etc. Health-promoting behaviours are major determinants of health and disease prevention. As respiratory pandemics recur, the physical and psychosocial health of our senior citizens warrants urgent attention. This study, conducted in two phases, aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a behavioural intervention protocol for promoting health behaviour among rural geriatric populations related to the primary prevention of respiratory pandemics. In Phase I, a protocol for behavioural interventions on primary prevention of respiratory pandemics was developed, and in Phase II, a pre-experimental one-group pre-test post-test research design was used to evaluate its efficacy in terms of health-promoting behaviour among the rural geriatric population; 30 rural elderly were selected by a purposive sampling technique, and data were collected from them. In Phase I, protocols for behavioural interventions on the primary prevention of respiratory pandemics were developed and validated; in Phase II, the health-promoting behaviour was assessed using the modified health-promoting behaviour tool. A behavioural intervention was administered before the post-test, which included primary preventive measures to decrease the spread of respiratory pandemics and mortality rates among rural geriatric populations. Results showed that the majority (63.33%) were aged 55-65 years; 56.66 percent were male, 60 percent were from joint families, 43.3 percent were middle pass, 80 percent had a business (farming), and 93.33 percent were married. In the pre-test, the majority (n=21, 70%) of rural elderly had moderate health-promoting behaviour and 9 (30%) had positive health-promoting behaviour, the mean being 98.53. In the post-test, the majority (n=16, 53.3%) of rural elderly had moderate health-promoting behaviour and 14 (46.6%) had positive health-promoting behaviour, and the mean was 103.83. The mean difference was 5.36, SD 1.225, and the t value 24.03, which is highly significant at the level of p<0.001, supporting the hypothesis that there is a statistically significant improvement in health-promoting behaviour among the rural geriatric population with the administration of behavioural interventions. Improvement in health-promoting behaviour suggests that behavioural interventions help in preventing/mitigating the spread of respiratory pandemics among the elderly and reducing the mortality rate. The authors are: 1 Principal-cum-Associate Professor, Smt Sudha Devi Memorial Govt Nursing College, Kabirdham (Chhatisgarh); 2. Associate Professor, LN Nursing College, LNCT University, Bhopal (MP). Key words: Respiratory pandemics, Behavioural interventions, Geriatri