The effect of interactive education and the use of printed materials on the low back health protection knowledge and behavior of marble workers

Objective: In this study, it is aimed to compare the effect of interactive education given using printed material to protect low back health and education given using only printed material on the knowledge and behavior of marble workers to protect low back health. Method: The sample of this non-randomized experimental study in the pretest-posttest-follow-up order consists of 135 workers (interactive education and printed material group: 44, printed material group: 45, control group: 46). The data were collected with the "Descriptive Information Form", "Lumbar Health Protection Information Level Form", "Manual Carrying Observation Form", "Visual Analog Scale" created by the researchers. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant in the study. Ethical consent, institutional permission and informed consent from the workers were obtained for the study. Results: After the education, the knowledge score (p<0.01) and manual handling behavior score averages (p<0.01) of the workers increased compared to the control group according to the control group in both initiative groups, while the VAS score averages (p<0.05) decreased according to the control group. The difference between the means was greater in the intervention group in which interactive education and printed material were administered together. It was observed that the workers' follow-up test low back health protection knowledge and manual carrying observation average scores were significantly higher (p<0.001) than the scores of both the printed material group and the control group, and the VAS scores were significantly lower than the printed material group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Interactive education is more effective in protecting the back health of workers, increasing the level of knowledge and behavior and reducing low back pain compared to the use of printed materials alone. However, the use of printed materials also had a significant effect. For this reason, these results are important in terms of showing that printed materials to protect the back health of workers can be used in cases where interactive trainings cannot be provided.