[Empowerment for dengue prevention and control].

Objective: Dengue is a public health problem; community individual empowerment must be ascertained regarding prevention and control measures.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was applied which enquired about empowerment in three areas having high dengue incidence in Bucaramanga, Colombia, during 2008. The survey was subjected to face validity, content and test reproducibility. Previously-trained medical students then went house to house applying a survey and providing information about dengue.

Results: Instrument reproducibility was between 0.5 and 0.8; 930 people were surveyed, 81.3 %) houses during the previous month and mosquito larvae were found in 26.1 % of them. Regarding empowerment, 347 (37.3 %) respondents felt that their suggestions for dengue control were being heard, 339 (36.5 %) were likely to perform control action, 336 (36.1 %) educated others, 307 (33 %) washed the water spigot/washing area once a week, 213 (22.9 %) had requested control measures from the authorities, 212 (22.8 %) collaborated with neighbours in gathering up useless items, 177 (19 % ) attended meetings, 55 (5.9 %) were involved in preventative activities, 29 (3.1 %) lead campaigns and 31 (3.3 %) had obtained support for programmes.

Discussion: Empowerment levels were low despite the campaigns and dengue cases having been filed. It is recommended stimulating and integrating the community for successful empowerment and dengue control.