The purpose of this study is to clarify the effectiveness and significance of the health education method through using traditional folk song “Lam” in Lao PDR.
The study was conducted at a village in Vientiane city with 48 participants. Firstly we collected quantitative data by questionnaire survey and then conducted group interview after listening “Lam” for HIV/AIDS prevention. The qualitative data was analyzed by basic procedure of KJ method.
The result showed that the participants with older than 20-year old (p<0.05) and lower education (p<0.05) tended to prefer “Lam”. Through the qualitative analysis, eight categories were extracted ; 1) Interest for Lam talking about HIV/AIDS, 2) Perception for a risky sexual behavior, 3) Knowledge on the HIV/AIDS infection routes, 4) Commitment for HIV/AIDS prevention, 5) Needs for the health education methods, 6) Suggestion for HIV/AIDS education, 7) Consortium with people living with HIV/AIDS, and 8) Characteristics of Lam and its advantages. After listening Lam, the participants received knowledge about HIV/AIDS and formed attitude for HIV/AIDS prevention. This process was influenced by the characteristics of Lam and its advantage such as entertainment, educational function and traditional communication.
These result suggested that Lam which has entertainment and educational function can be utilized as an effective media for Lao people to improve knowledge and promote better attitude and behavior. In addition, the educational method through using traditional communication media such as Lam might be effective for the people to memorize and communicate information.