Abstract
Objective: To grasp the present situation of health education in developing countries with a special focus on maternal and child health, and to seek the desirable international cooperation program toward the future in the field of health education.
Method: A questionnaire was distributed to 80 Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers working for community-based nursing activities who were dispatched to developing and least developing countries from December 1998 to January 1999. Comparison was made between developing and least developing countries.
Findina:
1. The main providers of health education were the nurse (both female and male) and the health worker.
2. The contents of health education were maternal and child health, family planning, vaccination, nutrition, and safe water. In the least developing countries health education on safe water, and maternal and child health was more intensively conducted than in developing countries.
3. Concerning implementation method, problems were found in lack of health education program in regular bases and health education technique.
4. Future challenges included a) in-service training of health education providers to improve their educational technique, b) development of inexpensive and community-oriented audio-visual aids, and c) others.
