INFLUENCE OF HEALTH TALK ON YOUTHS’ WELL BEING IN BARUTEN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KWARA STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

Abstract The study examined the influence of health talk on youths’ wellbeing in Baruten local government area of Kwara State. Health talk is the process of educating individual and groups on issues of improving their general wellbeing and preventing all forms of diseases. The variables examined includes, Health talk in relation to reduction of: (i) Unhealthy habits; (ii) Early marriages / teenage pregnancies and (iii) Substance abuse among youth in Baruten Local Government Area, of Kwara State. This study adopted a descriptive research design of the survey type. The population of the study comprised all youths from which 268 were sampled from youth groups participating in health talk across the 1 1 electoral Wards in Baruten Local Government Area. The instrument used was researchers’ designed questionnaire, validated by three experts in the field of health education, from the Department of Health Promotion and Environmental Health Education, University of Ilorin. Split-half method was used to test the reliability of the instrument, using spearman’s ranking order to get the reliability co-efficient of 0.74r. Inferential statistics of Chisquare was used to analyze the data collected for this study. All the hypotheses formulated for the study were tested at 0.05alpha level of significance. The results revealed that health talk had significantly influenced the reduction of unhealthy habits, early marriage / teenage pregnancies and substance abuse among youths in Baruten Local Government area. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that, Health talk should be extended beyond youth groups and fora to other community members in the Local Government Area, with respect to unhealthy habits, early marriages/teenage pregnancies and Substance abuse. Keywords: Health Talk, Influence, Youths, Wellbeing, Substance abuse.