Health Belief Model-Based Educational Intervention on Safe Pesticide Use and Biomarkers in Agricultural Workers

Brief Summary:

Purpose: This clinical trial aims to investigate the effect of educational interventions (HeBSaPU) based on the Health Belief Model on safe pesticide use and biomarkers among greenhouse agricultural workers. The main questions it aims to answer are;

1. Compared to the control group, HeBSaPU affects safe pesticide use practices in greenhouse agricultural workers.
2. Compared to the control group, HeBSaPU affects safe pesticide use health beliefs in greenhouse agricultural workers.
3. Compared to the control group, HeBSaPU affects pesticide exposure determined by urine samples in greenhouse agricultural workers.

Participants took educational interventions based on Health Belief Model (HBM) sub-dimensions; including educational posters, free personal protective equipment (PPE) incentives, short reminder messages, and demonstration components about correct PPE usage.

The study aims to determine the effect of Health Belief Model (HBM) based educational interventions on safe pesticide use practices and biomarkers in greenhouse agricultural workers in Antalya, Turkey.

This research is a single-blind (participants), superiority randomized controlled trial design with a parallel group. The population of the research will be the greenhouse agricultural workers in the Sarıcasu Village of Antalya Province. In determining the research sample, the "effect of educational interventions on the change in protection behavior" was taken as Hegges g=0.89, and the sample number was calculated as 56 individuals with a 5% type 1 error margin. Considering that there would be losses during the research, it was planned to take 15-20% more of the sample (n=66).

On the map obtained from the Geographical Information Systems of Sarıcasu village, the greenhouses were randomized as experimental and control groups with the help of Randomizer.org.

Safe Pesticide Use Practices questionnaire, and Safe Pesticide Use Behaviors Health Belief Model Scale will be used to collect data. The variation of individuals' pesticide exposures will be determined by residue determination in urine samples.

Pre-testing of the study, taking the first urine samples, and starting the educational interventions will take place in the second week of November. At the end of twelve weeks, it is anticipated that the data collection process will be terminated with the collection of the last tests and the second urine samples in the last week of January.

At the end of the research, it is expected that the safe pesticide use behaviors of HBM-based education initiatives will change positively, and the diacyl phosphate metabolite concentrations in the urine will decrease with the effect of this change.

Eligibility Criteria:
Participant inclusion criteria

* Age: 18-65 years, inclusive
* Being a greenhouse agricultural worker
* Being a permanent employee in pesticide-related jobs in selected greenhouses,
* No communication-related barriers (language, speaking, understanding, etc.)
* Volunteering to participate in research

Participant exclusion criteria

* Being a seasonal agricultural worker
* Being a daily wage worker,
* Not dealing with pesticide-related works