Abstract:
The Ottawa Charter defines Health Promotion as the „process of enabling people to increase
control over, and to improve, their health‟. The National Health Promotion Policy recognizes
health promotion as an efficient and cost effective approach to promote health in Sri Lanka. The
Public Health Midwife (PHM) is the grass root level health worker responsible for promoting the
health of communities in Sri Lanka. Their knowledge regarding health promotion has not been
assessed. The main aim of this study was to describe their knowledge on health promotion and
associated factors.
Methods
A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among all PHMM (N=364) in the Kandy
District who were eligible, using a self-administered questionnaire. Level of knowledge was
based on scores obtained for responses to close ended questions and case scenarios.
Results
Knowledge on health promotion was „poor‟ among 238 (65.4%). Incorrect labeling of other
activities as activities using a health promotion approach was common 257(70.6%). Training
programmes 285(73.9%) were the commonest source of knowledge while 95(26%) were never
trained on health promotion approach during their career. The factors that were significantly
associated with a level of „good‟ knowledge on health promotion in multivariate analysis were;
experience in the public health field less than 20 years (p=0.012), participating in training
programmes on health promotion (p=0.03) and experience in implementing health promotion
programmes (p=0.04).
Conclusions
The study concludes that PHMM in the Kandy District have a „poor‟ level of knowledge on health
promotion and recommends increasing training opportunities and improving opportunities for
application to improve the situation
