Effectiveness of Health Education on Safe Sex Practices and HepatitisB Vaccination Uptake Among Tertiary Students in Benue State
Keywords:
health education, vaccination uptake, hepatitis B, safe sex, and interventionAbstract
This study examined the Effectiveness of Health Education Intervention on Safe Sex Practices and Hepatitis B
Vaccination-uptake among Tertiary Students in Benue State, using a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test control group
design involving 216 students, comprising 108 in the intervention group and 108 in the control group. The objectives
were to compare mean safe sex practice and HBV vaccination uptake between the intervention and control groups, the
intervention group received a one-month structured health education programme, while the control group received no
education. Data were collected using a validated and reliable questionnaire (overall Cronbach α = .76) and analysed using
descriptive statistics and ANCOVA at p < .05. Baseline scores did not differ significantly between groups. Postintervention
findings showed that safe sex practice improved substantially in the intervention group (mean = 22.46)
compared with the control group (mean = 17.97), F (1, 204) = 499.72, p < .001, partial η² = .17. HBV vaccination-uptake
was significantly higher in the intervention group (30.5%) than the control group (13.7%), χ² (1, N = 207) = 8.40, p = .004.
Overall, the intervention produced significant and meaningful improvements across the two domains, demonstrating that
structured health education significantly improves HBV prevention outcomes among students. The study recommends
that tertiary institutions institutionalize structured HBV education within their routine health programmes and
orientation activities to sustain and expand gains in HBV infection prevention. However, the short duration or follow-up
may limit long –term inference
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