Perceptions and Consumption Behavior to Prevent Opisthorchiasis in Ubon Ratchathani Province (การรับรู้ และพฤติกรรมการบริโภคของประชาชน เพื่อป้องกันโรคพยาธิใบไม้ตับ จังหวัดอุบลราชธานี)

This study objective was to survey the perception and consumption behavior to prevent opisthorchiasis in population in Ubon Ratchathani province. Twenty-five villages with high density of population and adjacent to water resources within 1 kilometer were selected. The research data was collected from 774 families from July to August 2009. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (e.g., frequency, mean, SD, percentage) a nd Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient. The perceptions in opisthorchiasis of population were high (54.9%). Similarly, consumption behaviors of local population to prevent opisthorchiasis were high (57.7%). However, the correlation between perceptions and consumption behaviors related to opisthorchiasis was not statistically significant (r 0.059, p-value 0.145). In conclusion, the study results can be beneficial to opisthorchiasis prevention and control. Additionally, local community should be educated and gained same health promotion skills continuously in order to minimize morbidity and live a healthy life. Key words: opisthorchiasis, perception, consumption behav