Background: Dengue fever is an acute viral disease transmitted through mosquito bites. Every year, about 50 million people worldwide are infected. During 2014 and 2015, southern Taiwan suffered the most severe outbreak ever recorded: more than ten thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths. Unfortunately, most of people have low awareness and alertness of the severity of dengue fever epidemic, and have poor understanding that vector mosquito control is currently the only effective way to prevent and control the epidemics. 

Methods: To improve the awareness and cooperation, E-Da Hospital has initiated a health education program. The program provided the up-to-date epidemic prevention information, and strategies to block the vector mosquito breeding, and taught people how to use the natural Chinese herbal medicine "wormwood" to make natural and harmless anti-mosquito "wormwood sachet" and "wormwood incense stick". The program was targeting out-patients 18 years or older with no handicap. To evaluate the degree of understanding on dengue fever prevention strategy, participants were given cognition tests before and after education class. With a perfect score being 100 points, the higher the score, the better the understanding. To evaluate levels of satisfaction on learning how to hand-made wormwood products, patients were given a satisfaction survey. A five-point rating scale with a score of 5 points indicating “very satisfied”.

Result: To promote participation and satisfaction in people joining the program, playing gashapon machine and riding the dynamic Ferris wheel were provided as after-class rewarding activities. A total of 80 persons (mean age 50) completed the survey and tests. The average score in the health education satisfaction survey was 4 showing satisfaction with the program. The average score in the test for understanding the dengue fever epidemic prevention was 64 before the class and 90 after the class, an increase of 26% by the program.

Conclusion: This program promoted the prevention of dengue fever epidemic through group health education to outpatients, and taught the participants how to make natural anti-mosquito supplies. Good health education guidance can increase people's satisfaction with medical treatment, improve people's awareness of dengue fever and epidemic prevention, and improve people's self-care ability.