Effect of An Educational Intervention About Occupational Safety on Knowledge and Practices of Male Students in Technical Mechanical Secondary Schools in El-Behira Governorate

Background. Occupational health and safety is one of the most important aspects of human concern. The Aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of educational intervention about occupational safety on knowledge and practice of male students in technical mechanical secondary schools in El-Behira governorate. Hypothesis: Technical Mechanical secondary school male students who engage in occupational safety intervention will demonstrate higher level of knowledge and practice than those who are not . Material and Methods: Quasi-experimental pre/post–test research design. Settings: the study was conducted in four technical mechanical secondary schools in El-Behira governorate. Subjects: the study was carried on 280 students (140 were cases and 140 were control).Data collection tools: data were collected using three tools: structured self-administered questionnaire, Students' knowledge regarding occupational safety and observation check list regarding safety measures practices in the training workshops.Results: conveyed that less than half (46.4%, 47.9%) of both the study and the control group respectively were aged between   16 to less than 17 years. All the study group and the control one had poor knowledge regarding occupational health and safety before conduction of the educational intervention, whereas after implementation of the educational intervention, more than three quarters of the study group (85.7%) had good knowledge whereas the vast majority of the control group (99.3%) still had poor knowledge  . There was a statistically significant relation between the department and the total knowledge score of the study group (X2= 14.150 , P=0.007*).Conclusion: The educational program is successful in attaining its aim of positively improving knowledge, and practice of the study group   about Occupational Health and Safety.Recommendations: this study recommend the necessity of provision of personal protective equipment to the students in the school workshops and integrating occupational safety topics in their curriculum. Keywords: Educational intervention, occupational health, Knowledge, Technical secondary schools. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/80-05 Publication date:September 30th 202