Impact of an educational program on the incidence of infantile diarrhea: a community intervention trial

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at designing, conducting and evaluating the impact of a health education program to improve personal and domestic hygiene, based on local beliefs and practices. The study is a community based intervention. Two areas of the same village were randomly assigned to be intervention or control. Socioeconomic characteristics were obtained by questionnaire. Maternal knowledge about causes and transmission of diarrhea were obtained by personal interview. Personal and domestic hygiene were obtained by observation. By the end of the follow-up, statistically significant differences in maternal knowledge and hygienic practices about diarrhea between intervention and control groups were observed, with improvement in the study group. This study suggests that a simple educational message designed to alter wrong beliefs and unhygienic practices about diarrhea can change beliefs, modify behavioral practices and lower rates of diarrhea