Knowledge and Preventive Practices as Potential Factors of Empowerment Against Dengue in Córdoba, Colombia

Given the growing health impact of dengue fever in recent years, which primarily affects Latin American countries and Colombia in particular, interdisciplinary studies and scientific and technological advances to combat it, such as vaccines, mosquito genetic modification techniques, vector control using drones, and digital surveillance systems, among others, are becoming increasingly important. However, despite these achievements, little is known about the disease itself. The relationship between knowledge, sanitation conditions, and the preventive actions against dengue can be understood as part of the whole process of construction of community empowerment. Rather than acting solely as external factors, these dimensions constitute interrelated components that reflect the individuals and communities' capacity to understand, confront, and actively participate in dengue prevention and control. Against this background, the main contribution of this study lies in addressing community empowerment in the face of dengue as a multidimensional construct comprised of dimensions of knowledge, sanitation, and preventive practices, allowing us to explore its internal structure and understand how these dimensions relate within a common analytical framework.

A quantitative approach with an observational, cross-sectional, and analytical design was used. A total of 352 people infected with dengue during 2019 in the department of Córdoba, Colombia, were surveyed. Each response was assigned a score using the Likert scale question technique. Subsequently, a composite empowerment index was constructed. This index was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of domains related to knowledge, sanitation, and preventive practices against dengue. Consequently, the analysis did not aim to evaluate external predictive relationships between these components and empowerment, but rather to explore the relative contribution of the dimensions that internally comprise the construct and its association with different levels of empowerment.

The analysis revealed differences in the relative contribution of the components making up the empowerment construct. The higher index levels were associated with higher scores in the dimensions related to knowledge and preventive practices. In contrast, profiles characterized by favorable sanitation conditions, but lower levels of knowledge and preventive skills, tended to be located in lower categories of the empowerment index. This indicates that there is heterogeneity in the internal construct structure and reflects the relative importance of its constituent dimensions.

It is concluded that empowerment has to be understood not only as the result of an individual effort or purpose but also as a complex and multidimensional process whose levels of development reflect the individual, relational, and collective capacity to act together and achieve significant changes.