A TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH TO PROTECT PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM COVID-19: A COMBINATION OF HEALTH PROMOTION MODEL AND ANIMATION SUPPORTED EDUCATION

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic and related mutations, which affect the whole world, continue to increase globally. This crisis adversely affects school-age children's quality of life. This study aims to determine the effect of animation-supported education based on the health promotion model given to primary school-age students for protection from COVID-19 disease. The study was carried out between February and April 2022 following the experimental research criteria with the pre-test, post-test, and re-test control group. The sample consists of 148 students studying in the 4th grade at two schools deemed suitable for the conduct of the study. Data were collected using data collection materials, the descriptive questionnaire, and the General Child Quality of Life Scale. The mean age of all students participating in the study was 10.53±2.60. It has been determined that 36.0% of the students have not received any training on COVID-19 before, 32.4% of them did not take precautions to defend themselves from COVID-19 disease, and it is not possible to protect 48.4% of them from COVID-19 disease even if adequate precautions are taken. It was found that the difference between the pre-test, post-test, and re-test mean scores of the students in the experimental group on the quality of life scale was statistically significant (p<.05). It was determined that the mean of life quality increased immediately after the training but decreased in the measurements one month later. Education to be given to school-age children should be developed with animation-supported programs.